A Hero
by Bioweapon 155
Summary: Heroes can come from the most unlikely of places. And what is more unlikely than a Dalek trying to resurrect his dead race? Rated T for  Puella Magi-ness.
1. The alien and the Magical Girl

**Of course, reality has a way of proving you wrong.  
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**All publically recognizable characters are property of their rightful owners.**

**This is a work of fanfiction, and seeks to draw no profit from its publication.**

* * *

><p>Dalek Sec was especially angry with the universe right now.<p>

He was familiar with the process of temporal cloning, and with alternate timelines.

He had never expected it to happen to him, though.

Dalek Sec wasn't sure he wanted to know why it did, or how he had managed to get his casing back, or why he was in orbit around –where else- Earth when he gained his senses.

The murderous curiosity that came from being the Scientist of the Cult of Skaro lifted its head anyways. Maybe he should investigate…

No, no, no! Bad Sec! No Mad Science for you!

_Especially_ after what happened last time; in retrospect, becoming an abomination of Dalek and Human physiologies was quite possibly the most insane plan he ever had. He really should have seen the mutiny coming.

A change in doctrine did not mean he had to change his own being, just because he wanted to be thorough.

He probably would have continued his metaphorical self-kicking, had his sensors not detected an anomaly.

He read the output, took 0.00045 rels to reset his casing's systems, and rechecked the readings.

It was an Eye of Harmony. Or a piece of one, which was just as good.

Had he been human, he might have squealed in glee.

Instead, he shoved as much power he could spare into the trans-solar disks in his casing, and flew down, towards the source.

Five minutes later, he hit atmosphere.

* * *

><p>Dalek Sec had been trying to track down the piece of an Eye of Harmony, trundling down the streets of a city the locals called Mitakihara when he, literally, fell into a pocket dimension.<p>

The landscape was absolutely surreal, an eternal sky, stretching all around him, below a large, vaguely humanoid shape hung, suspended from what appeared to be rope. The ropes were –of course- attached to nothing at all, and floated in midair, laughing in the face of gravity.

Dalek Sec decided to studiously ignore such happenings and concentrated instead on finding his goal.

Odd, his micro-harmonic drive was in range of acquiring a time-stream lock.

He activated the device, originally designed to draw power from the Eye on Skaro, but tweaked to accept power from any time-space disturbance, mostly because of the extremely _bizarre _circumstances destiny often threw his way when he had been leader of the Cult of Skaro.

And them Time ground to a halt.

Even being a Time War veteran, Sec was caught completely off-guard. Thankfully one of the many advantages of being a Dalek was that, even if you lost your composure, Dalek body language was so different from that of inferior species' no one else would notice.

Being a particularly adaptive Dalek, it took only a scant fraction of a rel to take the new development in stride.

The first rule of dealing with the unexpected being to hoard as much information as possible, Sec ran a full sensor sweep. Sure enough, external temporal readings showed a halt in the flow of time. Spatial distortion on the immediate area was consistent with an artificial bubble universe.

Longer ranged sensors showed that the surrounding micro universe was curling in on itself. They also revealed that the unidentified life-form wasn't wholly organic, the strong spatial distortion surrounding it hinted that it was the source of the pocket dimension he seemed to be trapped in.

Odd.

Active temporal readings managed to pinpoint the location of the piece of the Eye of Harmony. Biological scans, long-distance genetic profiling and the Eyestalk Mk. 7 revealed that it was in the possession of a young human female that appeared to be fighting the abomination.

Even odder.

They also revealed that she was moving normally, meaning that she was behind the time-stop.

Which meant that she already had some measure of control over the Piece.

Daleks were heartless, merciless and bloodthirsty like you wouldn't believe. And Dalek Sec was all of those things.

However, he was also _cautious,_ at least when his survival instincts weren't clouded by whatever example of mad science he was currently attempting.

So he hovered, content to watch the fight.

* * *

><p>Homura tossed air-fuel grenade, the explosive shell freezing in midair partway through its arc.<p>

_*Click*._

Time resumed, and the fuse ran out just as it entered the skirt the abomination happened to be wearing.

It exploded, pieces of the non-Euclidean abomination raining around her in flames. Most Puella Magi would have at least made a show of the fight before delivering the finishing bow.

Homura didn't. She was precise, economic and practical. Her powers were draining, and her energy was limited.

So she made up with as much skill as she could, not to mention some…_ interesting toys the Yakuza and the JSDF had._

The remains of the witch disintegrated, a Grief Seed falling to the floor with a soft _clink as reality asserted itself._

She heard a soft electronic noise behind her.

She whirled around; bringing what the internet had called a PM-9 submachine gun to bear.

She was… surprised, to say the least, at what was staring back at her. It took a while to assimilate the improbable collection of characteristics: The pepper pot-shaped outline; the half spheres dotting the metal "skirt" on the lower half; the armored panels on the torso; one telescoping arm shaped like a plunger, the other like an egg whisk; the grilled neck, protected by a thick cage; the dome, adorned by what seemed like a pair of lights, almost as if they were ears; and the glowing mechanical eye, stuck to the end of a metal rod.

That it was also pained a sleek, shiny black seem almost like an afterthought.

The thing's complete lack of facial structures failed to diminish the intensity of the _stare_ it was giving her. It waved the plunger in her direction, and a there was a brief buzzing noise in her head.

A harsh, electronic staccato voice, seemingly stuck on the loudest possible setting, came from the machine.

"YOU ARE A TIME TRA-VEL-ER." It stated.

That was enough to shake her out of her reverie.

"How do you know?" she growled, "Who and _what _are you to know_?"_

There was a tiny mechanical whine as the glowing light of what she assumed was the thing's eye contracted momentarily.

"I AM A DALEK." It spat, confirming Homura's suspicions that she had pissed it off. "AND YOU? WHO ARE _YOU _TO MA-NI-PU-LATE TIME? YOU ARE NOT A TIME-LORD, YET YOU CON-TROL THE TIME-STREAM IN WAYS THAT THEY DO NOT KNOW OF! EX-PLAIN!_ EX-PLAIN!_" It screeched, seemingly on the verge of hysteria.

_It doesn't know? _Homura mulled over this information. On one hand, it meant that it had no relation with Kuubey's people and their energy-collecting scheme, meaning it could be an ally. On the other, there was the possibility that this… thing… could be worse that whoever controlled Kuubey.

Considering what she knew of alien species, that was a good chance. She decided not to risk it.

_*Griiiind*._

The world dulled into sepia tones. The "Dalek" _didn't._

She walked around it and, sure enough, the dome on the top of the thing tracked her, keeping her in sight.

_Crap._

"YOU HAVE _NOT_ EX-PLAINED." It stated, and Homura swore it sounded a bit smug.

*Click*. Time resumed its normal flow.

"I will _explain." _She ground out, "but not here. Someplace more…private."

This had _not h_appened in the other timelines. Maybe… maybe if she included this creature into her plans, things could change.

Hopefully for the better.

But even so she would not rely on it. She had no reason to believe the loud metal alien

She returned the gun back into her shield and changed back to her normal form. The dalek said nothing.

* * *

><p>"Hey! What are you supposed to be?"<p>

"I AM AN IM-PERIAL-IS-TIC SPACE NAZI."

Laughter erupted from the gaggle of teenagers and they went on their way. The dalek's response to the previous five or so people had been the exact same thing, which was worrying in and out of itself.

Homura had asked it about it, and its answer confirmed her fears.

"THE DALEKS HAD THAT RE-PU-TATION. IT WAS NOT UN-EARNED."

They walked in awkward silence after that, Homura wondered wherever or not she had bitten off more that she could chew.

They arrived at her usual apartment, the old building hiding a rather modern interior. She changed shoes at the entrance, the alien watching her in what seemed to be curiosity. They entered the living room, the lights switching on by themselves.

The dalek looked at her decor with what she assumed was interest, letting its sight hover on the E-wall that dominated the living room.

Homura sat down on one of the seats, and the dalek maneuvered itself opposite her, his own form worse than unsuited for such a human display.

They stared at each other for a good while.

The dalek's "eye" adjusted it's iris slightly.

"WE ARE IN A SE-CURE LO-CA-TION." It stated. "YOU SAID YOU WOULD EX-PLAIN."

"I will." She said, her voice finding the flat tone she had gained in this timeline. "But I also have questions, and I _will have answers. Can you promise me that?"_

The alien stood silent for a few moments. Eventually, it spoke.

"YOU HAVE MY WORD."

And so she began.

* * *

><p><em>My name is Homua Akemi.<em>

_And I should start from the beginning._

_The universe is dying. The physicists are calling it "heat death". At one point in time, energy will run out, and everything will die. Slowly._

_A race of ancient, advanced beings didn't like this. They raged. They raged without anger, worried without despair._

_They put all their effort into finding a way to halt entropy. They found one._

_But it was useless to them, the process required emotion, and they had none._

_But then they found our world and, what would you know, we were compatible._

_They send these…Incubators. I don't know if there's more than one, or if they're all part of the same-_

_…Wait, here's a picture. Do you-?_

_No? Oh… well, it was worth trying._

_Anyways, these incubators wander the planet, searching for pre-adolescent girls to grant them wishes._

_In return, the girls are turned into Puella Magi_, magical girls who fight witches that feed on human misery-__

_…No, I don't know how it's supposed to be possible either. Please stop shouting._

_To do their *ahem_*duty, Puella Magi_ are granted abilities beyond normal humans. They can summon weapons, use magic and gain great strength and resilience.___

_They also gain other, unique abilities, the specifics of which draw from the wish they made._

_…Yes, you guessed quite correctly, but please let me finish._

_There is, however, a price._

_You see, the Incubator never tells the girls the full story. The whole story would drive his precious contracts away screaming_.__

_When we make our wish, he gives us this._

*clink*

_It's called a Soul Gem._

_…Yes, you can "scan" it. Just… be careful._

_Most girls assume that the Soul Gem is just a magic trinket from where their power comes from. It isn't._

_The soul gem is_ them. It is their soul, their consciousness, their essence, their mind… whatever it is you wish to call it. The one you see sitting in front of you is just an empty shell. We can control our…bodies up to one hundred meters away.__

_…No, you can't test that on me. Now, can you hand me over?_

_There are other "details" that the Incubator forgets to tell us. He tells us to fight witches, so we do. He tells us using magic can corrupt our Soul Gems, and that defeated witches drop something called a Grief Seed, which we must use to purify our Soul Gems; so we do._

_What he doesn't tell us is that, should we fail to cleanse our gems, we will turn into witches. This is our curse. Even if we were to stop using magic, simply controlling our bodies uses our energy, so we will always end up needing to fight them. A normal life is impossible for us._

_Not all witches are fallen Puella Magi_, otherwise there would never be enough for our subsistence. Wiches control beings called familiars, they are their helpers, their dutiful servants. Occasionally, a familiar will leave a witches control. If it can feed from the deaths of five people, it will become a copy of the witch that spawned it. Additionally, a witch gains a familiar for every kill it makes. Old witches can summon veritable armies.__

_… Fine, I'll tell you how I fit into all of this, on the condition that you stop shouting._

_First of all, I am not from this timeline._

_Of course, you probably know that already, with whatever gadgets you have in that… thing you're in. Casing, whatever._

_I was naïve back then, a shy little girl just out of the hospital. I was nervous, alone._

_There was this girl, her name was Madoka Kaname._

_She was nice to me._

_She was the first friend I ever had. Maybe…_

_Wait, do you know what love is?_

_…I didn't think so. Forget it._

_What you have to know is that she was important_ to me. She still is.__

_And, when I was coming home from school-_

_…It's a place where you learn what should be useful things._

_Anyways, I was attacked by a witch. I almost died. I should have died._

_But Madoka saved me. She was…amazing, glorious._

_And she wasn't alone, she was being taught by an elder Puella Magi_, called Mami Tomoe. She told me what the Incubator –they called him Kuubey- had told them, about the Puella Magi.__

_They fought witches and familiars to protect the people of this city, and I trailed behind, like a lost puppy._

_And then Walpurgis Nacht, queen of all witches, came._

_Mami didn't stand a chance. She died almost instantly. We were…broken over her._

_You know what I am talking about, right? Do daleks feel anything when someone close to you dies?_

_…Not always? Weird…_

_So she died and Madoka… she killed Walpurgis by herself, but she died to do so._

_So I told the incubator, that I wanted have a chance to do it all over again. To protect Madoka instead of being protected by her._

_So he made me a Puella Magi, _and I returned to the past to try again.__

_I have done so many times since, more than I could care to count. I will not give up. Never. Even if it takes a million years._

_You can help me, but I will_ succed, one way or the other.__

_There, I've explained everything._

_Your turn._

* * *

><p><em>I am Dalek Sec. Dalek Supreme of the Dalek Army, exterminator of the Mechanoids, leader of the cult of Skaro, and its last living member.<em>

_I am also the last of the Daleks._

_My species believed itself to be the supreme beings of the universe. The master race._

_For eons, we exterminated all our opposition, wherever it was real or imagined._

_…Yes, what I said before is an approximation of what we are. Always tell the truth when your enemy will find it completely ridiculous._

_We waged war against the universe itself. We had no use for what you would call a "culture", we made no friends amongst ourselves, or enemies. There was only our loyalty to the Emperor, the Dalek race, and the Dalek creed, the ingrained purpose of all Daleks: to conquer and destroy._

_And then, we gained the attention of the Time Lords, a race of non-interventionists that were toying with the fabric of space when the universe was new. They were masters of time and space, and they had manipulated all species to evolve into the same basic template as they. Beings lesser than the Time Lords have been worshiped as gods._

_They were the single, most powerful species in the universe, if you were to lift a single voice against them; they erased you from time itself. You would have never had existed._

_They feared us. The ancient, immortal Lords of Gallifrey were afraid of a species born in a world torn apart by war, whose technology was millions of years more primitive that theirs and who had no true allies to call to their side._

_They sent the Doctor, the hero of their race, to stop us, to kill us all when we were created by Davros during the Genesis War. He failed. Time and time again, they sent their very best to put and end to us, and we refused to die, each and every time._

_Soon it became clear that one could only survive if the other was dead._

_We accelerated our research into Temporal Warfare. We tried to perfect the technologies necessary in the little time we had left, gain what little experience might help against a race that had already won a Time War. We even resurrected our Creator, so that his genius could help our cause. We did everything to prepare against an enemy that had all the advantages._

_In the end, we weren't prepared enough. We fought anyways._

_The Time War raged. Davros, Creator of the Daleks was one of the first casualties. The Emperor decided to create a special group of Daleks to replace him. Daleks whose intelligence went beyond previous parameters, whose authority overrode even the Emperor himself, whose creativity matched the mad genius of Davros. He took the most experienced, loyal, aggressive and daring Daleks in the army and had them undergo behavioral modification and gene therapy. _

_I was amongst them._

_The result were Daleks that could do what no one else in my species could: what you humans call "think outside the box". We called ourselves the "Cult of Skaro", in honor of our poisonous home. We gave ourselves names, something no Dalek has ever had. We became… friends._

_Together, we drove our species forward. The Time Lords had grown comfortable over the eons. They had expected an easy victory. They had expected us to bow down in fear._

_Daleks have no concept of fear. We only knew how to fight, and we fought ferociously. I and my comrades only guided that ferocity into where it would do the most damage._

_The Time Lords were enraged; they pulled the Doctor into their war to lead them in our destruction._

_Much to their horror, and our pleasure, it made no difference. Victories for the Time Lords became narrower, and their losses became greater._

_And then, on some small, insignificant battlefield, a force of fifty hundred Daleks, held out against a superior force of Time Lords and Sontarans and pushed them back._

_A race that could have never existed at all, that had never fought within time, that all of existence believed that they would perish against the might of Gallifrey, had taken on the masters of the universe, and was winning_.__

_And suddenly, small victories became larger. The Time Lords, long accustomed to victory, simply could not handle defeat. They were being devastated beyond proportion to what we were doing to them. They struck at our world, erasing it from existence. It did not stop us, it only made us angrier._

_I believe a few Supremes exploded from rage._

_And then the battle for the Cruciform happened. If we could secure the Cruciform, we would be able to access the separate Time Stream where Gallifrey was located. Previous assaults had been unsuccessful, only a few of our ships could have entered at a time. They were intended as psychological warfare. Most of the planet had been rendered lifeless; the remaining Time Lords were within their capital, where they waited for a miracle._

_It did not happen. The Cruciform fell into our possession._

_Tell me, Homura, have you ever seen someone break? Or, as you humans call it, "snap"?_

_… Now, imagine it happening to an entire species._

_That is what happened when the Time Lords lost the Cruciform. They drove themselves insane_.__

_I do not know what happened on Gallifrey. Intel from spies indicates that someone of the name of Rassilon was resurrected. Other sources claimed that the Time Lords intended to use their technology to "ascend"._

_All I have the knowledge of, is that the Emperor, and his fleet of five million ships entered the rift to Gallifrey, and never returned._

_I had foreseen such an occurrence, so I devised a plan to save the Daleks. The Time War could not be escaped. Neither we nor the Time Lords could do so._

_There was, however, another way._

_I created a Void Ship, capable of crossing the barrier between universes and into the Void. I gathered what remained of the Cult for one final mission._

_Time Lord Vessels use a spatial disturbance device to make them be much larger on the inside. We retrieved a prison ship filled with Daleks._

_We stored it inside the void ship and escaped to another universe, until it was safe to return._

_When we did, we discovered that the Doctor had survived._

_Twice I have tried to restore my species. The first time, I tried to use the Daleks trapped inside the prison ship to conquer the Earth-_

_…Not this _Earth. It appears I am also not from this timeline.__

_The Doctor found a way to draw us back into the Void. Me and my comrades barely escaped._

_Our casings allow for a limited amount of movement through time. We escaped into a more primitive Earth to rebuild our race._

_I however had other plans. I wanted to change my people; I wanted to have us forget our dreams of becoming the sole life form in the universe, because it had clouded our capacity to survive. They grudgingly agreed._

_I was, however, too radical in my implementations. There was a mutiny, and I was shot._

_…No, I have no knowledge in how I survived. Stranger things have happened to me._

_I am not interested in your own personal objective. I only seek to resurrect my dead race. I have no interest in your affairs and will not_ become involved.__

_I will not, however hinder you in any way._

_I hope you can understand that._

* * *

><p>They saw each other off at the doorway into Homura's apartment, The <em>Puella Magi <em>to plan for the battle ahead, and the Dalek to create a destiny for itself and its people, never expecting to see each other again.

Of course, reality has a way of proving you wrong


	2. The looping of time

**All publically recognizable characters are property of their rightful owners.**

**This is a work of fan fiction, and seeks to draw no profit from its publication.**

**Before anyone asks, a "cell" is a Dalek unit of measurement used to measure size, roughly 1.25 meters. Made it up myself!**

* * *

><p>Had he been capable of such an inferior expression, Dalek Sec might have sighed. He was, once again, stuck.<p>

He glowered at the incubator pod, resisting the urge to blast something to pieces on the pretext that he might actually hit something valuable. There was very little space in this basement, and all the equipment necessary was all clustered together into a few square cells.

So far, progress had been gratingly slow. He had been able to secure a location and some of the equipment, rigging up the hyperspace matter reconstructor on his self-repair system to produce the new casing, since human standards for technology were laughably inappropriate for the task.

Then he ran out of resources halfway through, and it all went downhill from there.

The half-built casing stood there, accusingly. It had almost no internal mechanisms, the life-support systems were an absolute mess, the eye-stalk was nearly blind, the control mechanisms were prone to lighting themselves on fire and the trans-solar disks kept reversing. Putting anything inside would be absolutely cruel.

Still, he was fairly confident in his ability to improvise anything, and since he had recently made a fully-stocked genetic laboratory out of spare parts and technology that humans of this time period would have considered woefully outdated, he hardly felt his confidence was unfounded.

He was partway through figuring out what the Thal kept setting the controls on fire when the ground decided to suddenly throw him into the air.

There was a whine of trans-solar disks, and he easily managed to keep himself upright.

Curious and angry (mostly angry) about what was happening outside, he hovered up the stairs and peered outside.

He stared.

Multiple sensory restarts failed to get rid of the sight of multiple buildings floating in midair. In the distance, a huge, upside-down humanoid wearing a dress whose lower body had been replaced by a stack of huge bronze gears hovered, explosions raging around her.

Dalek Sec recalled something from his meeting with the time traveller Homura Akemi. Walpurgis Nacht, queen of all witches.

He did not envy the _Puella Magi_, the energy readings were _enormous_.

Still, the thing wasn't looking his way, so it was probably safe to continue.

He was halfway down the stairs when he stopped.

He had not just thought of that, had he?

He had not just assumed that the universe would be kind to him for once, and he had most definitely _not_ just invoked the law of disproportionate-retribution-for-confidence-he-should-not-have.

With an appropriate amount of dread neatly settled in its usual place, he hovered back to the window, and looked outside.

There was a swarm of familiars in the sky.

They were, more importantly, making a beeline for him.

And thus, Dalek Sec became the first of his species to swear out loud.

"SON-OF-A-THAL!"

* * *

><p>Homura Akemi narrowly dodged an incoming building, and blocked a stream of dark purple light with her shield.<p>

She was holding, barely. The witch had already sent her familiars against someone else. She did not envy whoever was on the receiving end of the swarm.

Her ordinance had already been expended against the uber-witch, and Walpurgis didn't even seem to have been scratched by it.

She really should have brought a lot more.

The next blow from the witch sent her flying into one of the buildings.

There was a sick, wet sound as her body slammed into the concrete. She managed to block the most of the pain racing towards her true body.

She saw shapes in the distance. Homura squinted, using her magic to force her eyes into working properly.

…_Madoka?_

And besides Madoka, she could barely make out a tiny white shape…

_Incubator?_

…_no…_

…_No!_

"No!"

She knew what was going to happen, what _a__lways _happened. She had seen it a hundred thousand times.

She screamed all the same.

"_Madoka!_" She cried, Forcing this puppet body to empty its lungs.

"_Don't make the contract!_"

The distraction cost her dearly. A huge beam of eldritch energy threw her off her perch, and into the distant ground.

She screamed all the way down. At Madoka, at Kyubey, at the world, at _everything_.

Why couldn't she get it right just once?

She was only vaguely aware of an enormous flash of energy above her, before she hit the ground with a sick crunch.

* * *

><p>"EX-TER-MINATE!"<p>

_*Vreeem! Vreeem! Vreeem! Vreeem!*_

The situation wasn't nearly as bad as what he was used to. At least he could _see _what he was shooting.

"EX-TER-MINATE!"

_*Vreeem! Vreeem! Vreeem! Vreeem!*_

So far, the familiars had failed to reliably penetrate his shields.

"EX-TER-MINATE!"

_*Vreeem! Vreeem! Vreeem! Vreeem!*_

And Dalekanium was quite up to the task of withstanding what managed to get through.

"EX-TER-MINATE!"

_*Vreeem! Vreeem! Vreeem! Vreeem!*_

They had, however, completely trashed his laboratory. That the faulty casing had exploded had been practically expected.

"EX-TER-MINATE!"

_*Vreeem! Vreeem! Vreeem! Vreeem!*_

"EX-TER-MINATE!"

_*Vreeem! Vreeem! Vreeem! Vreeem!*_

So instead of one Dalek fighting in self-defense, they were up against a very, very, very, very **ANGRY **Dalek, who was fighting to kill them all.

"AUTO-MATIC FIRE EN-A-BLED!_ EX-TER-MINATE!"_

_*_Vreeem-veeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem-vreeem!_ !*_

_*Boom!*_

Being a member of the Cult of Skaro, Daleks Sec was capable of feeling emotions other than anger. However, those emotions were quite subdued compared to what other, inferior, species were supposedly capable of feeling.

However, no species in the universe, not even the emotionally-centered humans, could match a Dalek when it came to sheer raw rage. What the average member considered blinding rage would only leave a Dalek slightly miffed.

Conversely, what the average Dalek considered omnicidal rage would make any other life-form _explode_.

Dalek Sec wasn't quite near the I-will-kill-everyone-on-this-planet-with-their-own-internal-organs stage yet, but he was certainly getting there.

To think such a _pitiful_ enemy could stall the rebirth of the Daleks made him want to-

"_MAX-I-MUM EX-TER-MIN-AT-ION!"_

_*VreeEBRROOM! VreeEBRROOM! VreeEBRROOM! VreeEBRROOM!"_

Bits of the landscape, familiars and nearby buildings rained down in flames.

He was starting to enjoy this.

At which point the familiars simply vanished.

He looked around, at the devastated scene, and the painful lack of enemies. He roared in anger.

"WHY DO YOU TAUNT ME? WHY! EX-PLAIN! EX-PLAIN! _EX-PLAIN!"_

Naturally, the universe failed to respond, mocking him in silent smugness.

Dalek Sec positively boiled in anger that could not be directed at anyone-

…Wait a second…

"_MAX-I-MUM EX-TER-MIN-AT-ION!"_

_*VreeEBRROOM! VreeEBRROOM! VreeEBRROOM! VreeEBRROOM! VreeEBRROOM! VreeEBRROOM! VreeEBRROOM! VreeEBRROOM! VreeEBRROOM! VreeEBRROOM! VreeEBRROOM!*_

Now, if he could only find whatever smug, arrogant, self-centered omnipresent being kept putting him in to these situations, so he could drop an oblivion continuum warhead on top …

_WARNING, CLASS _X_ ENERGY-BASE__D LIFE-FORM HAS BEEN DETECTED._

Dalek Sec centered his vision on the city.

Walpurgis Nacht had been replaced by a huge, towering, formless monstrosity that completely encompassed the city. It had to be at least a few kilocells high.

Sec found the Dalek language severely lacking in words that would appropriately convey his feelings towards the universe at this moment.

There was no plausible way he could have escaped from the Abomination, harmonic energy reserves were too low to allow for a Temporal Shift. Fighting would have required at least a Killcruiser on his side.

He was just one Dalek against something that would end up swallowing the entire star system.

He held his ground anyways. He was the last Dalek, and if he had to go down, he would go down fighting.

Briefly, he stood his ground against the planet-devouring Abomination, before being destroyed utterly.

* * *

><p>Homura was tempted to let the tears fall.<p>

Very tempted.

Oh, how she wished she could simply let loose. Cry openly, into a comforting shoulder. Let her anger, her sadness, and her despair out, into the world.

She knew, however, that that would never be. Not as long as the Incubator lived. Not as long as Madoka continued to _die_.

Or become something from which even the most painful of deaths seemed a mercy.

She could not let her emotions surface. The Incubator was watching, and she would never let that _bastard_ have the satisfaction.

Her eyes snapped open. She was in the hospital.

Again.

_Repeat_.

She breathed once, and allowed her magic to heal her weak, ailing body.

_Restart._

She left the bed, and went to the bathroom, knowing her way there from memory alone. Holding up her soul to her eyes, she fixed her weak eyesight.

_Reset._

She turned around, the list of things she had to do coming to mind as easily as her own name: Get discharged, forge papers, get her apartment, obtain weapons, get enrolled, forge signatures, get food in the fridge, shop for clothes, kill the Incubator, hunt witches…

_And try once more…_

Not once did Homura look at her reflection. She knew what she would see. She had seen it many, many times before.

Steel.

Steel, to present her face to the world. Steel, to fight the Dealer of Fates Worse than Death. Steel, to resist the crap the world threw at her.

Steel, to hide the fact that she was broken.

She knew her weaknesses. She knew that something in her had _snapped_ a long time ago. She had lived long enough to know the emotional wreck she could become at any time.

So she had created a shell of steel around her person, just like a little metal cage surrounded her soul, to encage her emotions, for else they would destroy her.

All, so she could do this, over and over and over and over again.

And as many times as she needed.

_I will protect you, Madoka. No matter how many times I fail, how many people__ I kill, and how many worlds I __**burn**__, you will see the day after Walpurgis Nacht._

_I promise._

* * *

><p>In a lonely, unimportant point in low-earth orbit, someone was extremely confused.<p>

…Ok, so he was mostly angry, but confusion was a close second in his mind.

No points for guessing who is being talked about here.

Thankfully, the Time War had given him plenty of experience with getting back from the dead, so the confusion (and most of the anger) was gone shortly.

He reviewed the systems log with what might have been described as religious frenzy. Searching for a clue as to what the Thal had happened.

There! A clue! Victory!

The micro harmonic drive's log showed an unauthorized synchronic activation.

Which meant that the eye of harmony he had synchronized with had traveled back through ti-

There was a brief, horrible moment in which his mind drew a blank.

The time-traveller _Puella Magi _he had met had mentioned that she was trapped in what technical terms called a stable Time Loop, repeating the same period of time time and time again, potentially for eternity. Or at least millions of years.

And now he was trapped along with her, doomed to repeat the same time period for eternity.

Well, that could be easily fixed-

_ERROR, UNABLE TO SEVER HARMONIC SYNCHRONIZATION. TIME-LOCK DETECTED._

Why the Thal did he think that out loud!

The only solution to the problem he could now see was to help the time-traveller break the loop, since simply shooting her would only make things worse.

Which meant that the resurrection of the Daleks would have to wait.

Dalek Sec took stock of his current status: All casing systems were working perfectly, minus the micro-harmonic drive. His nutrient tanks were full, but the matter supplies in the hyperspace matter reconstructor were low.

Which meant that he had to chase asteroids to mine them.

Dalek Sec used his existent momentum to start the long journey to the asteroid belt. He was _not_ going to enjoy this.

He _hated_ asteroids. With a _passion_.

He just hoped someone else was going through the same sludge as him. He'd be happy to have _anything _to relate to right now.

Although, with his luck, it was probably some disgusting specimen of an inferior life-form…

* * *

><p><strong>Poor, poor Dalek Sec. He manages to survive the Mechaniods, theTime War, the Doctor, and his own people, only to get killed by Kriemhild Gretchen.<strong>

**And then the universe decides he hasn't been chewed enough, and straight out resurrects him so as to throw more crap in his direction.**

**On that note, Homura should get a medal for sheer determination. Although at this stage she's pretty much stopped caring for anyone but Madoka. **

**I'm going to be editing the first chapter slightly. I'll just change the reference to the number of loops so as to make it a little more vague, in order to give the impression that she has been repeating this for a very, **_**very**_** long time.**

**Also, could someone put a page of this thing on TvTropes, please?**


	3. The Dalek's Master Plan

**All publically recognizable characters are property of their rightful owners.**

**This is a work of fan fiction, and seeks to draw no profit from its publication.**

* * *

><p>Homura picked up Charlotte's Grief Seed from the ground.<p>

Again.

"…Give it back."

Sayaka complained.

"Give it back! That belongs to Mami-san!"

Again.

"This is only for _Puella Magi_, you have no right to touch it."

She flipped her hair, blowing the blunette off.

_Agai__n_.

Just like many, many times before. After a while, one began to see the consistencies within the loops, and then they all started to blur together.

Unlike any other timeline, a shadow descended upon her. She looked up, drawing her pistol from inside her shield, thinking of what could possibly be happening now.

Floating ten feet above the ground, with what Homura thought was a rather smug air around it, was Dalek Sec. It descended, touching down in front of her, staring with its mechanical eye all the way.

"FOUND YOU." It proclaimed.

Homura trained her pistol on the self-described "intergalactic space Nazi". Inside her façade, she was panicking. She didn't have the advantage of knowing what could happen now; never, in all the worlds she had left to burn, had something actually followed her from one loop to the next.

"You followed me?" she asked vaguely. Other experiences had proven that she had to hide her nature from Kyubey for as long as possible. Hopefully the shouty alien would catch her drift.

"NOT BY CHOICE." It spat, with just as much vagueness as she had, probably out of spite.

The dalek seemed to look past her, towards where Madoka and Sayaka were still kneeled on the pavement.

It trundled of towards them, Homura back stepping towards them as well, trying to keep herself between the metallic alien and Madoka, the gun never leaving its target.

_Remember, be like steel. You are not afraid. You are not weak. And if it as much as touches Madoka that thing will __**die**__._

Thankfully, dalek Sec's object of interest was not Madoka, or even Sayaka. Rather, it was Kyubey who was the subject of its unblinking gaze.

The faceless tank and the expressionless abomination stared at one another for a moment.

"I-DEN-TI-FY!" It, well, "screamed" was the only word that could describe how loud that thing sounded.

Kyubey stared for a moment, and ran away, little white feet a blur.

Homura closed her eyes.

_I will not laugh. I will not laugh. I will not laugh. Seeing that little bastard run in fear is _not_ funny, and I__ will not taunt it as it runs for its many, many lives.__  
><em>_  
><em>_… Oh lord, that's so funny…_

The dalek's dome turned quite suddenly towards Sayaka. Homura couldn't have cared less; the girl was literally destined to die anyways.

"I-DEN-TI-FY!" It screamed again.

Sayaka stared at the dalek in wonder, something seemed to click in her mind.

"Y-you were waiting for us." She said. Homura frowned, to have appeared just as they were exiting the witch's barrier… yeah, the dalek had been definitely waiting for them.

"I WAS." Sec deadpanned (as much as you can deadpan while screaming). "I-DEN-TI-FY!" it repeated, slightly louder this time.

"Mami died in there." Sayaka accused, ignoring the alien's rather loud words, and rose to her feet, planting herself in front of the shiny metal alien. "She died in there, and you just sat here, and you let her get eaten by that _thing_…"

"Sayaka, stop it!"

Both the alien and the doomed blunette turned towards Madoka, whom Homura was still keen to keep behind her and _away _from the developing conflict. The pink-haired girl shakily rose to her feet as well. There were tears in her eyes.

Homura felt a pang of pain in her chest. Even after all this time, it still hurt to see Madoka cry.

"H-he couldn't have known Mami was going to die in there, we didn't know either." She wiped some of the tears away with the sleeve of her uniform. "It's not his fault Mami died…or ours…" she seemed to tear up momentarily as she said this, "it's the witch who did it, and it's dead now."

The "thank you" went unsaid. Homura welcomed it anyways.

Madoka took a deep breath and, for a moment, Homura thought she could see _her_.  
>The <em>other <em>Madoka.

_That girl…who saved me all those loops ago… Is she really that close to the su__r__face?_Homura wondered.

"What would Mami say, if she saw us accusing people like that?" Madoka asked, her voice strong.

Sayaka seemingly deflated at this. She backed up from Sec's personal space, and looked at the floor in shame. "I… I'm sorry. Madoka's right, I shouldn't have said those things." She bowed her head slightly. "Please, accept my apologies."  
>H<br>omura looked at the tomboy in puzzlement. Surely Sayaka couldn't have idolized Mami _that _much-

Oh, wait. She _could_. She knew all too well how high Sayaka regarded the deceased blonde. Hell, _she _had found her a source of inspiration.

The dalek made tiny movements with its eyestalk, before dipping it once.

"APP-OLOGY AC-CEP-TED." It said, rather tersely, Homura noted.

Sensing that Sec was about to start screaming "I-DEN-TI-FY!" all over again, Homura intervened.

"Sayaka, Madoka, this is Dalek Sec." She said, finally lowering her gun, but not re-stowing it in her shield. "Dalek Sec, this is Miki Sayaka and Kaname Madoka."

"Pleased to meet you, Sec-san!" Madoka chirped, forcing a kind smile. She turned towards Homura, a questioning look on her face. "Do you know each other?"

"We've met." Homura replied coldly. She internally winced at Madoka's slight recoil at the tone of her voice.

_When this is all over, I need to cast away this mask_. Homura shivered; the few times she had had the pleasure of hearing her own voice, in old videos she had inherited from her family, she could barely reconcile that shy, happy tone with her own.

Sayaka quietly mumbled her greetings to Dalek Sec, who simply dipped it eyestalk in response.

The alien turned towards Homura. "I MUST AD-DESS YOU IN PRI-VATE." It said, casually shouting at her. Homura was starting to believe the alien loved the sound of its own voice.

Homura nodded, turned around, and left towards her apartment, the dalek hovered behind her.

Homura only returned the gun to its resting place after the distraught girls were out of sight.

* * *

><p>It appeared that Dalek Sec's concept of stealth basically boiled down to "don't bother".<p>

The alien hadn't even bothered to keep a low profile, preferring to keep alongside her and telling anyone who cared to listen that he was an alien space-Nazi. It seemed to work well enough.

They were back at her apartment, projected images dominating the wall as always, giving the white room a rather…surreal feel.

"Now that we are far from… prying eyes, I think explanations are in order." She bent forward, keeping her cold gave on the alien in front of her. "You followed me to this world, right?"

"IT WAS NOT BY CHOICE." The dalek replied, holding her gaze with its own. "I HAVE BE-EN TIME-LOCKED WITH YOU."

Homura raised an eyebrow. "Time locked?" she asked.

"I AM STUCK WITH YOU IN THIS TIME-LOOP." It explained. "AS-SIS-TING YOU IS NOW IM-PE-RA-TIVE TO THE SUR-VIV-AL OF THE DA-LEKS."

Homura blinked. It took a while for her mind to come to grip with what had been said.

She was getting help.

Unwilling, self-interested help that would probably prefer to be far away from here, but help nonetheless.

"I… I am grateful." She said, letting some emotion show, before forcing the mask back on. "Your help is much appreciated." She bowed her head an inch, "But now, we must discuss tactics. You are a week late, and time is of an essence."

"I WAS OCC-U-PIED." The alien explained. "I HAD EX-HAUS-TED MA-TE-RIAL IN AT-TEMPT-ING TO BUILD A DA-LEK CA-SING. I WAS FORCED TO RE-PLEN-ISH RE-SOUR-CES. "

"…and you were replenishing _where_?" Homura raised an eyebrow.  
>"AS-TE-ROID MI-NING." It said, spitting the words out like a curse. Homura decided to leave it at that.<p>

The converation changed to what had gone on during the week that the dalek had missed, particularly today.

"THE-RE WAS A CA-SUA-LI-TY?" The alien asked.

Homura nodded, careful to maintain her neutral expression.

"Her name was Mami Tomoe." She anwered the alien's question, "She was killed by the witch in that barrier."

"IS HER DEATH A CON-STANT?"

Homura gave a tired sigh. "No, " she said, "her death was… convenient. Otherwise, she would have become an obstruction."

"EX-PLAIN."

"She has emotional issues." She explained, pinching the bridge of her nose. "It's almost a requirement for a Puella Magi, but hers are particularly volatile. Had she learned what being a Puella Magi truly means, she would have attempted to kill me and any other girl that had made the contract, rather than let us to our fate."

"WHICH WOULD HAVE RE-SET THE LO-OP." Sec concluded.

"Exactly, and killing her beforehand only causes even more problems." She shrugged. "Leaving her to die is kinder to her, and also serves as deterrent to Madoka for making the contract."

"AND THE O-THER ONE?"

"She's a lost cause." Homura stated matter-of-factly. "She's literally doomed to failure in almost every timeline I've been in. If she makes the contract, she'll become a witch." She sighed, saying the next words in a bored tone. "If she doesn't, she'll merely die."

"HER DE-MISE IS GA-RAN-TEED?"

"Yes."

"THEN WE WILL USE IT TO OUR AD-VAN-TAGE."

Homura raised an eyebrow. "The transformation into a witch is impossible to revert." She said. Kyubey had not lied when he had told her that, all of her attempts to do so had ended in failure.

"I WILL NOT A-TTEPMT RE-VER-SION." Dalek said, and this time Homura was _completely certain_that there was smugness in that thing's voice.

Homura tried prying the answer from the alien, but it refused to answer, and instead shifted the conversation elsewhere. Realizing that she simply didn't have the patience or time to force an answer, she went along with it.

They agreed to meet each other tomorrow, and hunt witches together, after which Sec would reveal whatever master plan he had in mind.

Finding herself alone in her apartment, Homura couldn't help but worry.

What the _hell _was the alien up to?

* * *

><p><strong>The next day…<strong>

* * *

><p>According to Homura, Sayaka would have made the contract with the Incubator by now, and be on the way to rescuing Madoka from a witch.<p>

That the human had memorized nearly every single event in this city that could be remotely relevant to her cause, and had learned nearly every single possible route in which events could unfold was a testament to the stability of the loop. Had Sec not been introduced into the equation, he was confident it could have gone on for something approaching eternity.

Of course, he would have preferred not to have been introduced at all, but right now he was glad he had his casing with him, so there was no use complaining.

Daleks did not complain when they met difficulties.

Instead, they burnt difficulties down to ash, used that ash as a basis for a new sort of chemical weapon, and threw it at the next batch of difficulties that dared stand in the way, as per standard procedure.

The current difficulty was getting the Grief Seed necessary for his plan. Dalek Sec had discovered that his systems were sadly incapable of piercing a witch's barrier, so he had to rely on Puella Magi Homura.

They had argued for some time, before settling down on something resembling a deal: There were currently seven witches in the area, they would enter the barrier of each witch together, and take turns in killing them, himself going first. Afterwards, Dalek Sec would give Homura the extra grief seed he had acquired, so that the Puella Magi would end up with four, and the Dalek with three.

Dalek Sec was very tempted to just shoot her and grab them all, but that would have simply given him more problems than it was worth.

They arrived at the location of the first witch for the night and Homura raised her Soul Gem. The barrier opened, and the human and he entered the witch's realm.

Sec gazed upon the eldritch realm, and endless conglomeration of paintings and twisted furniture patrolled by mannequins.

_ENERGIZING ENERGY SHIELD. CALIBRATING KINETIC BATTLESCREENS. DIVERTING POWER TO PRIMARY WEAPONS SYSTEM. RASING TRANS-SOLAR DISK STATUS __TO MAXIMUM FLIGHT ABILITY. ACTIVATING ACTIVE SENSOR FIELD. ENERGIZING DALEKANIUM ARMOR.__  
><em>_  
><em>_BATTLE REFLEX MODE ACTIVE._

It took 0.000047 rels for Dalek Sec to process the targeting information the sense-globes fed him. He assigned IFF tags to the various life-forms around him, marking the single human on his sensors as friendly, and all others as enemy.

Hundreds of red contact icons, along with their distance, velocity and direction flooded the casing's targeting computer.

_525 ENEMY CONTACTS DETECTED.__  
><em>_  
><em>_TIME __TO MISSION COMPLETION: 155 RELS._

"AUTO-MATIC FI-RE EN-A-BLED! _EX-TER-MINATE!_"

The gunstick spat out scientifically engineered death, each blue bolt racing towards its target, liquefying it from the inside out.

*_Vreem-vreem-vreem-vreem-vreem-vreem-vreem-vreem-vreem-vreem-vreem-vreem!_*

The mannequins fell by the dozens, and he advanced through them, rotating his midsection to deliver kill as many of them as possible.

"EX-TER-MINATE!"

*_Vreem-vreem-vreem-vreem-vreem-vreem-vreem-vreem-vreem-vreem-vreem-vreem!_*

He waded amongst the enemy, shield flaring with hits that failed to penetrate, and the enemy died.

No, not the enemy.

Obstacles.

_Pests_.

There would be no mercy, no quarter, no deliberation. They were in his way, and so they would be _crushed_.

_420 ENEMY CONTACTS DETE__CTED_.

"DE-STORY WITH-OUT MER-CY!"

_371 ENEMY CONTACTS DETECTED._

"A-TTACK WITH-OUT FEAR!"

_291 ENEMY CONTACTS DETECTED._

"LIVE WITH-OUT CON-SCIENCE!"

_157 ENEMY CONTACTS DETECTED._

"EX-TER-MIN-ATE WITH-OUT PI-TY!"

_74 ENEMY CONTACTS DETECTED._

"KILL!"

_35__ ENEMY CONTACTS DETECTED_.

"KILL!"

_6 ENEMY CONTACTS DETECTED._

"KILL!"

_2 ENEMY CONTACTS DETECTED._

"_KILL!_"

_1 ENEMY CONTACT DETECTED._

The rest of the Dalek Creed was omitted. Partly because he wasn't as sure about the status of the Daleks as the supreme beings anymore and partly because he doubted that the single pest remaining was worth wasting that much time on.

The Witch.

The former _Puella Magi_had the shape of a huge canine, a distorted version of the animal that the humans had tamed millennia ago.

The witch said no words, it no longer could. It could only transmit intentions. Its own feelings of superiority; that how dare a mere mortal being enter her realm, and how dare he seek to deny her the human cattle it wished to embrace.

Such blind arrogance… to think of a species that were only second to the Daleks in war as mere cattle…

In three words, filled with a hatred that knew no bounds, Dalek Sec expressed his opinion on the witch.

"YOU. ARE. _NO-THING!_ _MAX-I-MUM EX-TER-MIN-AT-ION!_"

*_vreeEEBR__OOM!_*

With that single blow, the witch was turned to dust.

The metal sphere of the Grief Seed hit the ground with a *plink* as the barrier collapsed.

_BATTLE REFLEX MODE DEACTIVATED._

* * *

><p>The night's hunt was over, all seven witches had been defeated, and Homura had four Grief Seeds safely stowed away in her shield.<p>

The dalek had displayed a surprising level of fighting capability, destroying the witches with frightening ease. The only term that could have described each fight would have been "curb stomping". What at first glance had appeared to be nothing more than a particularly high-tech trash can turned upside-down, was actually closer to a small tank.

She was very impressed, to say the least, and quite glad that she had the alien juggernaut on her side. Thankfully, she was able to mask both feelings and keep them from showing.

They were now outside a warehouse in the city's port that Sec had managed to obtain, where the loud alien said he would _finally _explain what he had devised. The annoying secrecy had driven Homura's patience thin.

"This better be worth my time." She said in a voice that might have had ice in it.

"IT WILL." The dalek replied, as confidently loud as ever. The electric blinds groaned and rose on what Homura presumed was a wireless command.

They went inside, the lights hanging overhead flickering on automatically.

The warehouse was mostly deserted. On her right were a pile of boxes and a large plastic crate. On her left were an apparently random assortment of materials, electronics, and laboratory equipment, in various stages of disassembly, and packaging.

Curious, she had a look at the boxes first.

The picture in the box sparked a memory. She had seen it before.

But where? When?

She concentrated, looking back at the many, many loops she had been in. Where had she seen this sort of thing?

A memory came to her, half-forgotten and buried under an eternity. Of her father, giving her a catalogue for her to obsess over…

Her father…

Try as she might, she could not remember his face.

She shook her head; there was no time for reminiscing. These things were but toys, what was the dalek planning on doing?

Thirsty for answers, she left the toys behind and peered inside the plastic crate.

It was full of foot-long, bronze colored cylindrical devices, almost like-

An image of Sec's egg whisk-like blaster flashed in her mind.

Her gaze went from the toys, to the devices, and back again. The Dalek's plan clicked in her mind.

"Ingenious." She said, fighting the urge to grin. "But what is the other equipment for?"

The dalek told her.

She stared at him, the implications of Sec's plan being run through her mind.

"It's impossible."

"DA-LEK SCI-ENCE SNE-ERS AT THE IM-POS-SI-BLE." The alien proudly proclaimed.

"It's inhuman."

"WE ARE NOT HU-MAN."

"It's insane."

This time, she couldn't help it. She grinned, which caused the alien to jerk away an inch.

_Huh…_

"And the Incubator will never see it coming." She finished, the glee in her voice being as much emotion as she was willing to show. "I like it, I like it _very much_."

_And I hope this makes you suffer, Kyubey, because then I'll like it even __**more**__._

* * *

><p><strong>Yes, this thing is on Spacebattles now.<strong>

**And yes, Dalek Sec just **_**BOLOstomped**_** a witch.**

**I'd say more, but the urge to gloat my evil plan is too ****great. Goodbye!**


	4. The Knight in shining armor

There was a flash of steel, a swish of white fabric as it moved through the air.

A familiar died, bringing the number up to ten.

The blunette discarded her costume, returning to her previous attire. She rested, her hands on her knees. After a few moments, she took a Grief Seed out of her pocket and applied it to her Soul Gem, the eldritch device forming on the palm of her hand.

Sec zoomed in on her crystalized soul. It was surprisingly dark, and the seed sucked up the corruption like a sponge, leaving it sparkling again.

Homura had been right about the girl's lack of skill; Sec had done some research and had come to the conclusion that the _Puella Magi's_ form was _horrendous_.

Truth to be told, Sec couldn't help but feel slightly impressed by Sayaka's stubborn selfishness. To serve an unrewarding cause was something he was quite familiar with.

The Emperor had granted the Cult of Skaro almost unlimited authority, and the ability to imagine stratagems that no Dalek could. This had, however, come at a price; even amongst their own species, Sec and his comrades were _loathed_.

In a way, Sec could understand that. It was only natural; the Dalek's hatred of anything different was legendary, and those of the Cult were barely Daleks. Sec had no illusion about what his eventual fate would have been, had they been victorious in their ultimate goal.

Still, he served, somehow managing to keep himself together along the way. Others weren't so lucky. The suspicion, the nagging feeling that they might _not be Daleks_ had been too much for some of them.

They had broken down, asking to be killed. The had pleaded, _begged_ to be put down, screaming in terror and grief and pain…

It was at this point that Sec's survival instincts kicked in, and prodded at him to think of something else. Like what he was supposed to be doing.

He checked the chronometer, and saw that he had become lost in thought for 15 Rels. Sayaka had started to move from her previous position, searching for more familiars, the Incubator trailing behind her.

Sec silently swore, and glided forwards, making sure to keep his investment in sight. He needed to maintain discipline, such a distraction would have been fatal to him had he still been with his previous commander, the Dalek Inquisitor General.

In Sec's opinion, the Oncoming Storm had _nothing_ on the Dalek Inquisitor General. That Sec had managed to survive for five successive missions under his command had been considered impressive enough to warrant him a promotion to Dalek Supreme.

Usually, those of such a rank had been bred for the position, although the Council of Supremes had decided to make an exception, the third in the records.

Had he been able to feel such a thing at that time, he would have been very relieved at the promotion. He'd rather face a Battle-planet full of Sontarans and Time Lords than be around the Dalek Inquisitor General a moment longer. According to Intel, the Inquisitor had been killed by The Doctor.

Sec had every reason to doubt that. The Inquisitor _never_ stayed dead.

He decided he'd better think about something else, lest he summon the terrifying Dalek _here_.

Like how the Incubator could be in two places at once.

The white creature stared at him, white tail swishing behind it, its form had been clearly been designed to appeal to young human females.

It failed to extract any emotion out of Sec, besides loathing.

"IN-CU-BA-TOR." Sec stated, focusing more of his attention on the _thing_.

"_So you know my designation."_ The creature spoke, mouth unmoving. _"I must ask you where you obtained it, that information is considered classified for those outside the Confederation."_

"MY SOU-RCE DOES NOT CON-CERN YOU." Sec spat. "IF YOU SE-EK IN-FOR-MA-TION, YOU ARE WAST-ING TIME."

"_Oh well, I'll__ find out anyways."_ The creature spoke neutrally. There was a faux eager tone to its voice, but it was clearly just the way it spoke, nothing more.

Sec had heard Cybermen sound more emotive.

The creature tilted its head. _"You are not a member of the Confed__eration, and my superiors cannot identify your species in our records. Yet you are clearly from an elder race."_ It tilted its head the other way. _"What brings you to this planet?"_

Sec was confident that, had the creature know who -and, most importantly, _wh__at-_ it was talking to; those words would have been very different.

For starters, there would have been plenty of groveling.

"THO-SE REA-SONS ARE PER-SON-AL." He stated dismissively.

"_I must inform you that landings not authorized by the Council of the Coal__ition are a violation of the Energetic Resources Treaty."_ The Incubator continued talking, not even bothering to pause. _"I'm asking you to state your purpose here, so that we may help you. Energy collection is very delicate, and our operation is important __to the fate of the universe."_ The white creature padded towards him. _"It is in the best interest of creation itself to make your stay as quickly as possible."_

It took every Rel of training that Dalek Sec had to keep himself from shooting the _thing_. It was very _annoying_.

However, he did have one question for the creature.

"WHY DID YOU FLE-E FROM OUR PRE-VIOUS EN-COUN-TER?" He asked, mockingly "FOR A SPE-CIES DE-VOID OF E-MO-TION, THAT LO-OKED SUR-PRI-SING-LY LIKE FE-AR."

No one ever said that Sec didn't like taunting his victims.

"_I detected that your systems would interfere with my body's databases. I required a hardened model to confront you."_

Had Sec been human, he would have rolled his eyes.

"_Still, I must insist that you leave immediately, I'm sure we can arrange for some assis-"_

"I HAVE NO DE-SIRE TO LE-AVE." Sec interrupted the creature. "YOU ASK MY PUR-POSE? MY PUR-POSE IS TO IN-TER-FERE WITH YOUR _O-PE-RA-TION_ IN WAYS YOU CAN BARE-LY I-MA-GINE! YOU WISH TO HELP ME? _THEN LE-AVE ME BE!_" He roared.

The white creature recoiled.

"_I don't understand. Our operation is done in the best interest of the universe itself, we work to relieve entropy and ensure the future of everything."_

"YOU DO NOT FO-OL ME! HOW CAN ONE WO-RLD KE-EP A-WAY THE DE-STRU-CTION OF RE-A-LI-TY IT-SELF?" He glared at the creamy white _pest_ in his field of view, observing Sayaka only through the use of sensors. "AT BEST, YOU CAN ONLY KEEP A POR-TION A-LIVE FOR YOUR-SELVES!"

"_True. However, I must inform you that portion has been calculated __to be able to house all Coalition members as well as all the younger races in our databases."_ It flicked its tail. _"I know there are other undiscovered species in the universe, but sadly we cannot house them all. However, our methods will at least ensue th__at a portion of reality survives to populate the next universe."_

"BY U-SING THIS PLA-NET AS A RE-AC-TOR? AND HU-MANS AS FU-EL?" Sec replied, his voice dripping in a generous amount of hate.

"_You are correct. This is the most efficient energy source we have__ knowledge of. Other sources have been demonstrated to be exponentially less efficient than our current practice."_

Dalek Sec really wanted to tell it how loathsome its _methods_ were, regardless of efficiency. He really wanted to hate the white, abnormal _thi__ng_ with all the hate a Dalek could feel.

Except he couldn't.

He knew that he and any other Dalek would have applied the same solution to the problem.

When he had become a hybrid in that fateful experiment, he had wanted to reform the Daleks, to truly turn his species to the side of good. But now, now that he didn't have humanity's set of morals and values in his mind, he remembered something:

Daleks had _no concept of good and evil._

So, no matter how much he wanted, how much he wanted the Incubator and his kind to be evil, he was still a Dalek, and as a Dalek, he could see nothing wrong with the "Coalition's" plan.

It was efficient, and Daleks loved efficiency.

But it was _wrong, _Sec was sure of this.

But _how_ was it wrong? In what sense? It had a noble goal, it seemed to work and the price looked so _small_ compare to what it intende-

Wait…

What _was_ the price to pay? The exploitation of mankind?

And thus Dalek Sec had his Eureka moment.

_The exploitation of __a superior__ species, to disguise your motives as something e__lse, to withhold information, to perform such dishonesty…_

Yes, he could hate _that_.

"YO-UR ME-THODS ARE RE-PUL-SIVE." He said, finally. "YOU EXPLOIT THESE HUMANS, YOU WITH-HOLD VI-TAL IN-FOR-MA-TION-"

"_They never asked."_ The Incubator interrupted.

"-AND THEY DO NOT _KNOW_ THEY SHO-ULD HAVE A-SKED!" Sec continued unabated. His blood was up.

"I HAVE SE-EN THIS WO-RLD'S EN-TER-TAIN-MENT; I HA-VE DONE RE-SEARCH IN-TO ITS CUL-TURE. YOU HAVE MA-NI-PU-LA-TED ALL FA-CETS OF HU-MANITY TO CON-FORM TO YOUR GO-ALS, TO TAKE YOUR WO-RDS AT FACE VA-LUE! SO YOU MIGHT NE-VER _HAVE_ TO _LIE_." Sec was positively seething now. He was absently aware that Sayaka was moving through the streets, still within sensor range.

"_Such techniques were necessary for the efficiency of the plan. I__ don't understand, you are an advanced species, yet you cling to such primitive concepts like emotion like a younger race."_ The Incubator stared at him intently. _"It's confusing, higher levels of technology can only be obtained by dedicating the mind to lo__gic. How can you be so advanced?"_

"BE-CAUSE WE _WAN-TED_ TO BE!" Sec proclaimed proudly. "LOOK AT MY FORM, WHAT DO YOU SEE?"

The white creature observed him for a moment. _"It is inefficient."_ It observed._ "There surely must be a more practical shape for you.__"_

"YOU ARE CO-RRECT, MY FORM IS IL-LOGICAL, IM-PRACTICAL." Sec conceded. "BUT WE KEEP IT AS IT IS, BE-CAUSE IT IS A PART UF US, AS MUCH AS OUR GENES. SINCE THE GE-NE-SIS, WE HAVE AL-WAYS TA-KEN THIS SH-APE, AND WE AL-WAYS WILL!"

"_Surely such a form must have caused problems."_

"OB-STA-CLES ONLY MADE US WORK HAR-DER TO O-VER-COME THEM! AND THAT IS WHY WE AL-WAYS PRE-VAILED, EVEN WHEN LO-GIC DIC-TA-TED THAT WE SHOULD FAIL, WE _SUC-CEDED_! WHEN O-THER RA-CES THOUGHT THEY COULD RI-DI-CULE US, WE SHOWED THEM _BET__-TER_! WHEN THEY THOUGHT THEY COULD DO-MIN-ATE US, WE _AN-HI-LA-TED_ THEM! WHEN THEY THOUGHT THEY COULD CON-TAIN US, WE _CON-QUER-ED AND DE-STORY-ED_!"

"E-MO-TIONS GAVE US STRENGTH! OUR HATE DROVE US FOR-WARD! OUR AN-GER GAVE PO-WER TO OUR BLOWS! OUR PRI-DE KEPT US FROM BEI-NG CRU-SHED! OUR HA-TRED KEPT US _A-LIVE_!"

"I COME FROM A PLACE WHERE GODS ROAM A-MONGST THE STARS, WHERE THERE ARE BEINGS THAT COULD E-RASE ALL OF RE-AL-ITY WITH BUT A ME-RE THOUGHT, THAT COULD BEND TI-ME TO THEIR WILL AND FREE YOU FROM HAVING EVER BEING BORN! YET, NO MAT-TER HOW PO-WER-FUL THEY ARE, THEY ALL FEAR THE SAME THING."

The Incubator looked supremely confused.

"_You?" _It asked.

"NOT ME." Sec corrected. "A WO-RD; IT IS A WO-RD THAT CAU-SES SUCH FE-AR, THAT E-VEN THE LORDS OF TI-ME ARE SENT TO THEIR KNE-ES."

"_And what word is that?"_

Sec aimed the gunstick, setting it to output thermal energy. There was a safety, but no Dalek to his knowledge had ever used it.

"_EX-TER-MINATE!_"

There was a brilliant flash of heat as the white body was vaporized. Whatever energy went into its making was made unrecoverable.

Satisfied, Sec lifted off from the roof he had been on, and returned to keeping an eye out for Sayaka.

It was now that he wondered how we could reconcile his plan with the new Dalek morality.

* * *

><p>She was tired.<p>

So, very tired.

Even the refreshing effect of the grief seed failed to relieve her weariness.

But she couldn't rest now. There were still familiars out there, threatening the people she had sworn to protect.

She was a hero of justice! And heroes of justice didn't stop fighting just because they were tired! She would prevail, just like Mami would have done. She would protect this city 'till her dying day, just as her mentor had done so.

She checked her pockets; she had a half-full grief seed and an empty one left from her previous hunt.

Kuybey had told her that a corrupted Soul Gem would be destroyed if she failed to keep it clean for too long. She bit her lip. Could she make another contract if her Soul Gem broke? She hadn't asked Kyubey about it.

Although, odds were, she could only contract once, otherwise, what would be the point of making a wish?

Wishes were _supposed_to be one-time only.

"Hey, Kyubey?"

_"Yes?"_

"If my Soul Gem breaks, what happens? To my wish, I mean."

_"If your Soul Gem is destroyed, your wish will remain unchanged. But you won't be able to make another contract, so make this one count!_

Sayaka made a mock salute at the adorable white creature.

"Sure thing!"

She could do this. For Kyosuke, for Mami, for _everyone_.

Even if she got nothing in return, she'd do this.

Nothing would make her regret her decision.

_Nothing!_

* * *

><p><em>*FSSSSSSSSSHT!*<em>_  
><em>_  
><em>_*FSSSSSSSSSHT!*__  
><em>_  
><em>_*FSSHT!*__  
><em>_  
><em>_*FSHT!*_

"How...how did that happen?"

"I DO NOT KNOW."

"There was nothing there that could've caught fire, there was nothing there to spark a fire, and there was absolutely no reason at all for a _Grief Seed_to catch fire."

"CO-RRECT."

"Then _why_," She redoubled her efforts on constraining her emotions, "did that thing catch fire?"

The dalek made a circular motion with its plunger.

"I DO NOT KNOW." it repeated.

The apparatus in question was a ring about four feet wide, standing on its side thanks to improvised supports and connected to a myriad of electronics, computers, storage devices, electronic filters, a Tesla Coil and a toaster (which, the dalek insisted, wasn't a toaster).

This had been their fourth attempt at what they were doing. The first Grief Seed to undergo the process had, somewhat spectacularly, exploded.

After a few recalibrations, they tried again.

Grief Seed #2 had melted.

Grief Seed #3 had disappeared, and caused one of the storage devices to fail. Explosively. Homura debated wherever or not she should see Sayaka over the resulting electrical burns. She could probably cover the more visible ones with a scarf, but the others could hamper her effectiveness.

Grief Seed #4, after being liberated from a Witch by Sec in a violent -well, more violent than usual- manner and being inserted in the machine had...well its fate should be obvious by now.

Amazingly enough, the damage on the Grief Seed and the claw that held it in the center of the ring had been mostly superficial, and they were ready for another attempt.

Homura made a point in keeping the extinguisher handy.

Dalek Sec held the Grief Seed in a three-fingered metal claw that had extended from the center of the plunger arm. He held the metal cage in the center of the ring, a clamp coming from the bottom closing to hold the spike tightly. He released the eldritch device, and hovered back into what should be a safe distance.

This was the last chance they had at this, there were no more witches scheduled to appear until tomorrow, and by then Kyoko would have arrived along with a whole slew of problems.

And there was no way that Homura would let Sec have _her_Grief Seeds.

They stood there for a moment. If this worked, they'd be able to throw the Incubator's own creation at its face.

If it didn't... well, there was always the _other_thing that Sec had cooked up.

Sec pressed the plunger against a round metal plate on a pole with wires sticking out the back.

The machinery began to whine, the Tesla Coil sent out bolts of lightning, and several screens lit up, the bizarre characters of the dalek's language scrolling through them.

The inside of the metal ring lit up, beams of pale blue light jumping towards the center, right where the Grief Seed sat.

They waited for a few, agonizing moments.

Nothing happened. There was no fire, no explosions, no summoning of Elder Gods from beyond Space and Time.

The _Puella Magi_and the dalek were visibly relieved at that, before tensing up again. They were only halfway through the process.

The dalek interfaced with another metal plate, similar to the first one.

Homura held her breath. If this worked, it would change everything. It would open up a _world_of possibilities.

The whine of machinery grew louder; heat began to pour out of the electronics as they prepared for the next phase.

The beams reaching into the Grief Seed seemed to retract slowly, pulling thin strands of darkness from the witch's soul.

The sounds of the equipment around them grew louder still, the rate at which the darkness was drawn out increased exponentially. The seed glowed with a dark light, which was also funneled into the tight beams.

And suddenly, it was over.

The sounds quieted as the software that controlled the machinery ran its course, shutting everything down in sequence.

Homura approached the ring tentatively; her right hand clenched around a gun that wasn't there in instinct. Sec was right behind her, floating over the cables strewn on the floor.

Homura reached the ring, and took the Grief Seed from the apparatus.

It was empty.

All Grief Seeds had marks that distinguished them, that symbolized something about the Witch they were and the _Puella Magi_they once were.

This Grief Seed, however, had none of them. It was simply a hollow sphere with a spike on the bottom and a thin rod on the top, topped by a little ball.

It was a Grief Seed, _without an actual Wi__tch inside it_.

Homura held it in her hand, forming her Soul Gem beside it.

Nothing happened; there was no creature inside to suck up her grief.

Homura handed the Empty Seed over to Sec, her face as impassive as always.

"I must admit, this is a lot more than what I've managed to archive with these things." She conceded, and then gave a tiny frown. "However, you still need to make a copy of someone's _Soul_for what you are planning."

"THAT IS-SUE WILL BE RE-SOLVED E-VEN-TUAL-LY." The dalek stated, confidently loud as always. "IT IS A DIF-FI-CUL-TY, BUT IT CAN BE O-VER-COME."

"Then you should get started. I'll be leaving, this body has not been healed of its illness completely, and straining it would be inconvenient." Homura materialized her shield long enough to draw out a scarf, that she wraped around the burns on her neck.

She was mildly aware that the dalek was staring at her as if she had grown a second head.

As she left, she could've sworn she heard Sec mutter something about "jelly babies".

* * *

><p><em>The next day.<em>

* * *

><p>Tea.<p>

Tea, with just a hint of milk.

That was all Homura was willing to eat right now. It was really just a show; she'd already eaten enough to keep this body running and in optimum condition.

So what if her food was mostly microwave meals? The calories were sufficient.

Still, she had to keep her appearances, so when Madoka invited her to a restaurant in the mall, she ordered tea.

It was human. Even though she didn't think of herself as _human_ anymore, she wanted to act human for Madoka.

And _only_ for Madoka.

"What did you want to talk about?" she asked. Ninety percent of the time, Madoka's answer would be concerning Sayaka's new status as a _Puella Magi_. Ten percent would be about Homura herself.

"A whole lot of things actually…" the pink-haired girl replied, indeed looking as if she were about to burst.

That hadn't happened before, usually Madoka came looking for her because she was worried about Sayaka or, if the blunette was convincing enough in her claims, about Homura's nature and wherever she intended to harm her friend. But what could she be asking about now?

"Choose one, I'll answer them all as best as I can."

"The metal alien thing you talked- Sec-san, I mean-, you said you know him… did you contract with him?" she asked awkwardly.

Ah, yes, the new variable. Changing the equation with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, how very much like Sec.

"No, I did not." She answered. Apparently, even "Dalek Science" found the nature of the Contract to be strange at best. Sec had admitted that he had no idea how to replicate what the Incubator did.

_Yet_, at least; Homura had shuddered at what a dalek-engineered Magical Girl might be like.

"Why do you ask?"

The pinkette rubbed the back of her head. Homura kept forgetting just how little was needed to turn shy, naïve Madoka into the _other_ Madoka.

"It's just that…Kyubey-kun said he didn't remember you making the contract with him and I thought… maybe you had made your contract with Sec-san…" She idly picked at her food, "I wondered… if Sayaka made another contract, to make herself stronger, it wouldn't be as dangerous for her, right?"

"I have no idea." Homura replied, although she couldn't help but wonder at the implications of what might happen if someone made two Contracts. She filed the thought away; it'd be useful as a contingency plan. "Sec is not capable of making a Contract, so there's no point in asking."

The poor girl seemed to deflate at this. "Ah...I see…But then, how did you meet?"

Homura removed the lid from the plastic cup, letting the tea cool down. She was quite capable of ignoring the pain from burns, but that wouldn't be human either.

"It was a coincidence. We met once, briefly, but we had our own issues to resolve, and we went our separate ways. Right now we've decided to help each other, because it turns out our issues aren't mutually exclusive."

"Oh…"

Homura poured a small amount of milk into her tea.

"It's Sayaka, isn't it? You worry about her."

Madoka smiled sadly.

"She's hotheaded, stubborn. She gets into a lot of arguments; she can't keep out of trouble…" Her gaze shot up to meet her own. "But she's a really good girl! She's kind, she's brave, and she tries to solve everybody's problems! She just wants to be a hero to everyone and-"

"Those are fatal flaws for a magical girl." Homura interrupted.

Madoka seemed slightly shocked at this. How incredibly naïve.

_Why is it so hard to make you _understand_?_

"Really?"

Homura sighed slightly, and closed her eyes.

"With kindness comes naivette-"

_It's fine now, Homura!_

"-Courage becomes foolhardiness-"

_I must protect everyone._

"-And dedication has no reward."

_Why did you have to die!_

"Those who do not understand that are not fit to be magical girls."

Homura opened her eyes, Madoka looked absolutely defeated.

_I have seen Mami die a hundred thousand times__. I have seen Sayaka die a hundred thousand times. I have seen Kyoko die a hundred thousand times. I have killed more Witches, familiars and _Puella Magi_ than I can even _begin_ to count. I am old enough to have forgotten my father's face and I have left coun__tless words to an agonizing fate._

_But why… why is it that that look in your face moves me more than any of those things? Why do I have to fight the urge to hug you and promise that all will be all right, that I am really a hero and not a monster of my own making?_

_Why is it that you keep making me _human_!_

"But…Mami…"

"Mami was a…exceptional case." Homura interrupted. She sipped her tea, still a bit too hot. "She wished to be a hero. However, she also realized that she cannot save anybody if she is dead, so she always put her own survival first in her mind."

"And you?"

Homura was silent for a moment, her mind processing what Madoka was asking her.

_Am I a hero?_

She thought of all the pain, all the grief, all the death she had caused in the name of her cause. All the worlds she had left hanging in the breeze.

She knew her answer.

"I'm not a hero. I stopped being one so long ago I cannot remember what it was like." She sighed, adjusting the scarf on her neck, if only because it seemed like something human. "There is very little kindness left in me."

Madoka bit her lip. Her eyes suddenly widened as she realized something.

"Please…please don't fight Sayaka! I know you need grief seeds and the territory but…" her eyes bore into her, begging. "Please, please don't hurt her!"

It took Homura all the emotional control she had earned to keep herself in her seat.

"Madoka…"

"Sec-san doesn't need grief seeds, right? Maybe you can make a deal with him so that he can give you grief seeds from someplace else or-"

"_Kaname Madok__a!_"

Madoka clamped her mouth shut. Her eyes were humid, and they still begged.

Homura closed her eyes. Her breathing remained unchanged, despite the turmoil raging inside her. When it ceased, she spoke, her voice as calm as always.

"I may not be a hero, but I am not one to kill wantonly. Unless she aggravates me, Sayaka will not be harmed by my hands."

Madoka was visibly relieved.

"I will not, however, protect her. She is already under Dalek Sec's protection."

Madoka blinked.

"Sec-san?" she asked, confused.

Homura nodded.

"Walpurgisnacht is coming. I have plans to defeat it, as does Sec. It so happens that _his_ plans need Sayaka to be alive."

"Know this, however: Sec is not perfect. There are things that not even _he_ can save Sayaka from. He cannot enter a barrier on his own, and he cannot save her from herself."

Madoka gasped at what she had just implied.

"Sayaka wouldn't do that!"

Homura wondered if Madoka truly knew the blunette, because she knew that Sayaka was quite capable of doing _that_.

"Madoka, the life of a _Puella Magi_ is a life of pain. It is a life of _despair_. All the ideals she holds dear will be shattered, and she will not take it well. It is a life I wouldn't want to impose on anyone."

There was silence after that.

Homura sipped her tea, and frowned. It had gone cold.

Not that she cared, really.

"Kyubey said that the contract doesn't work if someone is an adult." Madoka whispered softly. "When Sayaka hits eighteen, will she stop being a magical girl?"

Homura shook her head.

"Madoka, we don't age."

"Then…" Madoka's eyes became as wide as saucers. "How…how old…?"

"I don't know."

Madoka looked at her in…fear? Awe? Wonder?

Homura had no idea.

"Remember when I told you, that I was glad I could save you from this fate?"

Madoka nodded.

"I will not lie to you, even though Dalek Sec will probably break a few laws of _physics_ to keep her from harm, it is very likely that she will die. Please, don't make the same mistake as your friend, and keep living for her sake."

Homura finished her tea. Madoka had barely touched her food.

"Check please!"

* * *

><p>Madoka walked through the streets of Mitakihara, what Homura had told her earlier in the day endlessly running through her head.<p>

_-Madoka, we don't age.-_

She tried to get her head around that. That someone could be old beyond measure, and still look as young as she did.

She thought of Homura herself, the dark, mysterious transfer student whose arrival had marked the beginning of all this insanity. How _old_ did one have to be, to become so cold, so impassive, to have such little kindness left in them?

How old did someone have to be to stop counting one's age?

No matter how Madoka tried looking at it, how much she tried to soften it, the answer was something that frightened her.

And now Sayaka –_her friend_- was stuck in that life. The life that Homura, who had been a magical girl for so long not even _she_ knew her own age, had told her was full of pain and despair.

At school, Sayaka had made a joke about both of them raising their kids together; telepathically wondering wherever of not her own children would inherit her mantle.

After her conversation with Homura, Madoka had gone home, mind reeling. Somehow, that joke had come up again, except this time, Madoka could only imagine herself, growing older and having kids and grandkids, while Sayaka remained the same, unchanging.

Had Homura watched her friends grow old, leaving her behind while she remained the same through the… through the…

_Years? Decades? Centuries, even?_

No wonder the brunette was so insistent that she not make the contract. Maybe the girl believed that if she could save one person from _that_, her own life of pain would have been for something.

And then there was Sec…

The _alien_ was a mystery, even more than Homura. Why was he here? Why was he so interested in stopping this W_alpurgisnacht_? Why did his plans have to involve Sayaka? Why did he look like a huge _pepperpot_ of all things?

And what _was _this _Walpurgisnacht_ anyways? Why did Homura, who had told her that she was no hero, want to stop it as well?

She had asked the brunette more questions in the restaurant, but she had told her that, sometimes, it was better to never have known some things.

Which is why she was here, trying to find Sayaka. Homura had told her that the alien was protecting her friend, so if she could find Sayaka, she could find Sec.

If Homura didn't want to tell her more, then maybe the alien would be more willing.

She had already checked the hospital and the tall buildings, but there was no sign of Sayaka there. She'd already tried to call the girl, but her cellphone seemed to be off.

So now she was looking in the alleyways of the industrial district. She was on the verge of giving up when she spotted her friend some distance away, Kyubey on her shoulder.

Her friend called out to her, and she quickened her pace towards her.

"Sayaka, are you hunting witches?" she asked.

"Yep!" The blunette smiled, "It's my second hunt already!"

Madoka forced a small, ephemeral smile on her lips.

_-Madoka, we don't age.-_

"What's the matter, Madoka?" Sayaka looked concerned.

"Well, you see…" Madoka pressed her fingertips together. _How do I put this?_ "I know that I'm not a _Puella Magi, _and that I'll probably be a burden for you, but I want to go along with you! At least to the point that I'm not holding you back."

Sayaka looked doubtful.

"…you know what? It would probably be a bad idea." Madoka was quick to add. She rubbed the back of her head. "I'll just be going…"

"Oh, shut up already."

Sayaka held her hand in both of hers, at which Madoka realized that the blue-haired girl was _shaking._

Sayaka smiled. In some of her darker moments, Madoka had come to the conclusion that her friend seemed to believe that she could cover everything with a smile and for the most part, it worked.

However, Madoka had known her since kindergarten, so while most people would have simply seen the smile on her friend's face, she knew better than that.

For example, she knew that Sayaka was _terrified_.

The blunette squeezed her hand more tightly, her smile turning more nervous.

"Ah, look at me, shaking all over. What kind of _Puella Magi_ am I?" She relaxed her grip, "You can come with me, I could use your support."

Madoka felt the corners of her lips tug. "Sure thing!"

They walked, Madoka searching for Sec-san as subtly as possible. There seemed to be no sign of him.

One would think that a man-sized, flying, shiny black pepperpot would be easy to spot, but sadly, this was not the case.

Seeing that she wasn't going to spot Sec any time soon, her mind wandered. Her thoughts naturally drifted to her friend, who was confidently seeking out witches and familiars with her Soul Gem. She seemed a lot more confident now that Madoka was with her, and certainly not nearly as scared.

Madoka though about how _different_ Sayaka was from the other two Magical Girls she had seen: the heroic, yet sad and lonely Mami; and the cold, stoic and calculating Homura…

Now, Madoka was a bright girl, and she was certainly not naïve, despite what Homura often thought about her. She was aware that there was evil in the world, but she firmly believed that there was plenty of good there too.

Unfortunately, even her optimism did not stop her mind from connecting the dots.

Sayaka, a young _Puella Magi_, just had her contract. Full of hopes and heroism, wants to save everyone…

Mami, an older _Puella Magi_, has been living like this for some time now. She tries to be a hero, but knows when it's best to look out for oneself. She still has her ideals, but she's slone and sad…

Homura, an _old_ _Puella Magi_, who's stopped counting her birthdays long ago. She stopped being a hero for so long that she can't remember what it was like. She tries to prevent others from falling into the same fate as her. Cold, stoic, never smiles and never shifts her tone…

Madoka tried really, _really_ hard to not see the progression. She tried really, _really_ hard not to wonder. She failed.

Would Sayaka, in some distant future, have forgotten what it was like to be a hero? Would she become like Homura, cold and distant, trying desperately to save but a single person from leading the life she had chosen?

She shook those dark thought from her head. Whatever happened to her friend, she'd make sure she'd never have to become like the dark-haired _Puella Magi_. Sayaka would never become like that if she had a say in it!

She was shaken from her own thoughts by Sayaka's Soul Gem going off.

"I've got one!" Sayaka transformed in an instant, forcing Madoka to run to keep up with her. They turned into an alleyway, and right into a barrier.

Madoka blinked, hard. The transition between the real world and the surreal landscape of a barrier was always disconcerting. Sayaka seemed only slightly more at ease than her.

This one was different, however; in that it didn't seem to be all _there._ Instead of an utterly alien landscape, it merely distorted the alleyway they were in.

"_This barrier does not seem very stable; it must be the work of a familiar."_ Kyubey seemed to muse.

"Huh." Sayaka peered around, before shrugging it off. "Well, no matter, I'm not going to let it get away just because it's weak!"

Quite suddenly, the creature in question came into view. It was a shapeless blob, constantly changing the way it looked, cheerfully bouncing a small ball against the wall.

Sayaka grinned, her previous fear gone in an instant. She changed into her _Puella Magi _wardrobe, a cutlass in her hand. She charged, swinging her sword at the familiar…

…and missed.

She swung again and the creature nimbly dodged the otherwise lethal strike, merrily bouncing its ball as it did. Sayaka summoned another blade from under her cape, holding them in each hand and throwing them at the escaping creature one after the other. The familiar zigzagged through the air, dodging the first blade, but going into the path of the second.

However, what should have been a lethal strike was _blocked_.

"Wha-?"

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

Both girl's heads snapped towards the voice.

_Another Magical girl?_

Madoka stared at the newcomer, clad in a red dress with pink trimming that was open in the front. Underneath, there was a skirt -also red- a black shirt and red knee-high boots over black leggings.

Her hair, as red as the rest of her outfit was up in a ponytail, and a spear was lazily held across her shoulders.

The stranger took a bite out the fried fish in her hand, and chewed.

"You _do_ know that that's a familiar, right?" she swallowed, "And that it won't drop a Grief Seed if it dies?"

Something moved in the corner of Madoka's field of view.

"Hey! It's getting away!"

Sayaka tore her concentration from the redhead and at the escaping familiar.

"I have to-"

In a heartbeat, the redhead crossed the distance between them and thrust the spear's big, triangular head in front of Sayaka.

"Not so fast, kiddo." She coolly said, clicking her tounge.

The familiar disappeared into the night, Sayaka helpless to stop it. The girl turned on the interloper, all but snarling in a rage Madoka had never known her friend to possess.

"Are you out of your freaking mind!" Sayaka cried, "What if it kills someone!"

"So what?" the redhead shrugged and finished what remained of the snack in her hands, "Keep an eye on it, let it kill four, maybe five people, so that it turns into a proper witch, _then_ pounce on it." She smirked, a canine showing through, "Otherwise it's like killing a chicken before it lays an egg."

Sayaka's grip on her sword tightened, she glared at the redhead.

"So you just _stand there_ and watch innocent people die!" She hissed.

The redhead clicked her tounge again.

"Heh, you've got it all wrong. It goes like this: weak people get eaten by witches and familiars; strong people shrug it off, and go on with their lives. Then we _Puella Magi_ "eat" the witches." She leaned against her spear, "Just like the food chain, right?"

Madoka didn't need to look at her friend's face to know that she didn't think it was "right" in the slightest.

The redhead, on the other hand, took a look at Sayaka's furious visage and smiled.

"Oh, _please_ tell me you're not one of those _idiots_ who made their wish for something completely retarded like saving someone." She guffawed, "That would be such a waste…"

Sayaka flung herself at the redhead, swinging her sword right at her head. The other girl reacted instantly, bringing the shaft of her spear to block the blow. The redhead wasn't smiling anymore.

She shoved, causing Sayaka to loose her balance long enough to deliver a backhanded swipe across her stomach.

The blunette was thrown against the wall, and down onto the floor, blood spilling from her wound.

Madoka screamed.

"_Sayaka!_"

* * *

><p>It was probably a good thing that all the Kaleds were dead. Otherwise, they might have taken offense to the fact that Sec was using their language to swear.<p>

A few humans had taken note of him, before looking away, muttering about "otakus" and "cosplayers", which was how the Dalek preferred it. He had been forced back into the street after losing sight of his charge and finding that the placement of the buildings prevented him from watching from afar anymore.

Instead, he decided to follow her closely. He'd find some excuse, that he was conducting research, maybe.

What had caused him to swear was the amount of people that were around him. Research had shown that Japan was a very densely populated area, owning to its small size. It hadn't really bothered him.

At least, until _now._

Another human bumped against him, muttering a hurried apology as he went. Sec's gunstick _twitched_, and he said nothing.

He had thought that he had mastered his kind's predisposition towards killing everything. He thought that taking the decision to forget about his species' quest for genocide would be the end of it.

He was wrong.

He was a mere four blocks away from his target, surrounded by humans that wished to cross the street. The urge to Exterminate everyone was insanely strong.

"Why's that fucking light taking so long!"

"Because you're swearing at it, dumbass."

Sec had fought against the Mechanoids, against the Lords of Gallifrey, against Sontarans, against Cybermen and against the Skaro Degradations. He had refused to lose his composure against The Doctor, The Bringer of Darkness, The Destroyer of Worlds, and he had survived five missions under the command of the Dalek Inquisitor General. He had fought in battles so horrific that the universe itself had convulsed, and had participated in a war so vicious it spawned _nightmares_.

And now he was up against something that dwarfed all those things.

Inside his casing, he quivered in rage. He cursed and swore, at the crowd of humans around him, at this _urge_, at those _fucking lights._

And at Davros.

As he fought to keep his species' most distinctive characteristic in check, Sec realized just what it was that the Creator had done, and he boiled in a hatred that knew no bounds.

Because, no matter how great the Dalek Empire had been, they were no different than any of the species' that worked the factories.

_Slaves._ Slaves to the will of Davros.

His resolve strengthened, the iron will of a Dalek against the _want_ planted by the Creator.

So, even though every fiber of his being told him to blast every Life Form in the city, he didn't. Sec eventually reached the industrial sector, and even though his genes screamed at him to leave a trail of bodies in his wake, he harmed not a single thing.

For eons, Davros had kept the Daleks chained to what he wished, obedient servants to what he had planted in them. For ten times ten thousand ages, the Daleks had been slaves without knowing.

Not anymore.

Sec had once wished to reform his kind because of human morality. Now, he wanted the same thing, more than ever before, becausehe was a Dalek, and he obeyed _no one._

* * *

><p><em>*VWORP!*<em>

_*VWORP!*_

_*VWORP!*_

_*THUNK!*_

_*Creeeaaak*_

"Doctor, where are we?"

"We're on Earth, South Georgia island, May twenty second, year two thousand and eleven." He raised a finger, "_But_, this is not the Earth you would remember."

"Well, considering that it's the Earth from our future, I don't think we would be remembering it, right?"

"That's a completely valid point Rory, but it's also completely wrong. Even if I had pulled you from a date later than this one, this still wouldn't be the Earth you would remember."

One of his companion's eyes brightened.

"Ooh, I know what this is: An alternate universe! This is Earth, just not _our_ Earth!"

The Last Lord of Time snapped his fingers. "Exactly Amy! This particular universe is known as a Branching universe. It was created by the Time War, and because it's connected to our own, it shares a lot of things with the universe you and I am familiar with."

"So, why are we here again?"

"We're her because…Remember when we restarted the Universe? When we did that, everything got brought back to life. And everything that should be dead, died again." He raised a finger again, "However, one of those somethings that should have died…well, it _didn't_. It fell through the void, and ended up here."

"Now we have to find our little interloper, and cut the Time Space stream that's connecting him or her to our universe, stick it on the TARDIS, and reel ourselves back home, sweet home!" he rubbed his hands, "Otherwise, all sorts of things will start intersecting; Angels, Cybermen, Daleks, Silurians, etcetera, etcetera!"

The other companion looked around the very deserted island. "So where is he? Or her?"

The older Time traveler fidgeted. "Now, you see…the Time Vortex 'round these parts is a bit…wonky. Well, _more_ wonky than usual."

"So…?"

"So, when TARDIS applied the coordinates to where we are supposed to be to the Vortex, it...eh, didn't land us anywhere near where we're supposed to be going."

"Doctor, how far away are we?"

The Time Lord's voice was uncharacteristically small. "We're, heh, on the wrong side of the planet."

His confession was met with shocked silence.

"Not to worry! Let's just get back in the TARDIS and I'm sure I'll get us bang on target with a little work!" He hurried back into the blue police box. "Come on! Time's a wasting!"

His companions paused before entering.

"He's not going to get it right the next time, is he?"

His wife sighed, "I don't think so either, but I know we'll get there in time, even if we have to carry the TARDIS on the back of a truck. Let's just get inside."

Both of them entered the blue police box, closing the door behind them.

There was a noise. The sort of noise the universe itself would have made.

*_VWORP!*_

*_VWORP!*_

*_VWORP!*_

There was a gust of wind, and the TARDIS vanished, leaving no trace of the magnificent machine.

* * *

><p><strong>So much for chapter 4.<strong>

**If you people are intersested in previews, speculation and general insanity, I direct you to the Spacebattles . com thread. It's in my profile.**

**And yes, THE DOCTOR IS IN THE HOUSE! Much insanity wil ensue!**

**AHAHAHAHAHAH!**

**VIC-TO-RY !**VIC-TO-RY! ****VIC-TO-RY! ****VIC-TO-RY!****


	5. The Shadows of the Realm

**Puella Magi Madoka Magica is property of Gen Uroubuchi**

**Doctor Who is property of the BBC.**

_**Time.**_

_**Time is eternal.**_

_**Time is everywhere.**_

* * *

><p>Madoka stood rooted to the ground. A few minutes ago, she was worried sick that her friend would have to deal with the prospect of living forever. Now it looked like she wouldn't get to live another day.<p>

"Listen here, _princess_, what I'm giving you is good, honest advice from someone who learned it the _hard_ way." The redhead held the spear in a loose ready stance. "So stop trying to be a hero, and pay attention to someone who fucking knows better, got it?"

Sayaka coughed on the ground.

"I don't give a fuck about what your stupid wish was, but if you think it entitles you to being everyone's superhero, then-"

"Shut up."

Sayaka picked herself from the ground, shining circles materializing near her wounds, healing them.

The redhead blinked. "Wha... that should've kept you down for a month!"

Madoka tried asking Kyubey what was happening, but the creature seemed to have disappeared. _Huh..._

Meanwhile, Sayaka had materialized another sword, and now held one in each hand.

"Shut up, if you think I'm going to let some selfish prick like you tell me what to do, then _you're_ the one who has something coming." She shifted her stance to something she felt was more suitable.

The redhead snorted. "So _what_ if I'm a selfish prick? All that matters to me, is me. And all that should matter to you, is you. But if you're too boneheaded to have that bit of sense beaten into you, then I guess I'll have to kill you." An arrogant smirk came into her face. "Think of it as an act of mercy: at least you won't get eaten by a witch."

Sayaka responded by throwing the sword on her left hand at her. The spear-wielder sidestepped the projectile, and blocked Sayaka's charge, quickly striking out with the shaft of the spear.

Sayaka seemed to have learned. She kept going, running past her opponent and skidding to a halt out of the range of her spear.

For a moment, both _Puella Magi_ stood still, eyeing each other. And then-

"WH-AT THE TH-AL IS GO-ING ON HE-RE?"

Dalek Sec had seemingly appeared in the alleyway. He approached Sayaka from behind, staring at the other girl.

"I-DEN-TI-FY!"

"Kyouko... wha..." The redhead shook her head to clear her temporary bout of confusion. "What the hell are you!"

"I AM AN IM-PE-RIA-LIS-TIC SPA-CE NA-ZI." The alien deadpanned.

There was a short silence. Madoka blinked, was that supposed to be a joke or something?

Sec turned towards Sayaka. "CE-ASE HOS-TI-LI-TI-ES."

Sayaka had recovered from the shock of Sec sneaking up on them and all but snarled at this "No."

"IF YOU COM-BAT HER, YOU WILL DIE. I CAN-NOT AF-FO-RD TO HAVE YOU DE-AD; THE-RE-FORE, OB-EY!" Sec…well, "screamed" comes close to the tone used.

Sayaka gave the alien only a sideways glance. "No! Stay out of this you pepperpot…thing, this is my battle!"

"TH-IS IS NO BA-TTLE, TH-IS IS AN E-LA-BO-RA-TE AND PRO-LON-GED EX-E-CU-TION! YOU BARE-LY E-VEN KNO-W HOW TO HAN-DLE YO-UR OWN WEA-PONS! O-BEY MY COM-MA-ND, _O-BEY!"_ Sec, it seemed, had no upper limit when it came to how loud he could be. He even shook slightly at his own words.

Sayaka took one last glance at Kyouko before twisting towards the alien. "I said _no!_" she cried, swinging her sword at the metal alien.

The odd, whisk-like thing on Sec's torso swung to point at the blunette.

"NEU-TRA-LIZE!"

An odd red beam shot out from the implement to hit the _Puella Magi_ in the chest. Sayaka staggered for a moment, and then collapsed into the ground, her costume fading away. She lay there, her chest rising and falling to accompany her breathing.

Madoka took this moment to run towards her unconscious friend and pull her out towards the wall. Her hand brushed the blue Soul Gem on the ground. After a moment's hesitation, she slipped it into Sayaka's pocket.

Sec turned his single, glowing blue eye towards Kyouko. "I COM-MA-ND THAT YOU LE-AVE."

"I don't think so."

Sec's eye narrowed. "I TO-OK HER DO-WN IN A SIN-GLE SHOT. I CAN DO WOR-SE TO YOU. LE-AVE!"

"Yeah, because a two day old _Puella Magi_ is the epitome of combat skills." Kyouko huffed. "This territory is _already_ mine, a weak girl like that can't keep hold of it for much longer anyways. I'm just doing princess here a favor."

"U-SUAL-LY, I WO-ULD A-GREE. HO-WE-VER, I HAP-PEN TO HA-VE U-SES FOR HER. YOU ARE NOT SO FOR-TU-NATE." Sec pointed the whisk-like thing at the redhead. "_LE-AVE_."

A snort from the redhead.

"Hey, if princess here's gonna get killed, well, better by me than by a witch, right? I don't know, just taking a shot in the dark here." Kyouko hefted her spear, a mocking smirk on her face. "Besides, what're you gonna do about it?"

"I WILL IN-FLICT WHAT IN TECH-NI-CAL TE-RMS IS KNO-WN AS A VIO-LENT-LY PAIN-FUL DE-ATH."

The spear-wielder laughed.

"With what? A _plunger_?"

Sec seemed to consider this, before he lowered the wisk-like appendage and raised the aforementioned plunger.

"I WILL TA-KE TH-AT AS A _CHA-LLEN-GE_."

Kyouko's smirk grew wider, and she swung her weapon. The shaft split, chains linking each section extended, and the spearhead flew in the alien's direction.

The Dalek simply strafed out of the way. The spear passed close to the plunger, and with a quick circular motion, he wrapped the chains around it.

Sec yanked, rotating his whole body and propelling himself backwards. The surprised redhead soon found herself being hurtled towards the alien.

_*Smack!*_

Kyouko collided against the metal armor of the alien, somehow managing to twist herself so that it was her feet, not her head, which took the blow. She dismissed her spear, and jumped off the alien, who didn't move an inch from the impulse.

Kyouko back-flipped in the air, summoning another spear as she did so. The arrogant smirk on her face was gone, replaced by a more serious expression.

She crept around the alien, who turned to follow her, the single blue eye staring into her.

Unexpectedly, she surged forwards, jabbing with her spear. Sec batted the weapon aside with the metal arm of the plunger and quickly extended it, apparently grabbing at the _Puella Magi's_ face. Kyouko immediately jumped out of range, jumped over the alien and swung her spear at the alien's head.

There was a sudden flash of light, and a noise that sounded like a small explosion.

Kyouko was knocked backwards, but quickly recovered, raising her weapon once more…

…And discovered that the entire head of the spear was missing, the shaft where it once was glowed red-hot.

"What the fu-"

In an instant, Sec twisted his midsection and head around like a turret, extending the plunger as he did so. Kyouko managed to block the rubber plunger with the remaining shaft of her spear. The plunger immediately changed shape, wrapping itself around the shaft.

With a powerful jerk, Dalek Sec wrenched the remains of the magically-created spear from its owner and proceeded to beat her with it.

_*Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack!*_

Kyouko managed to dismiss the remains of her spear and scramble out of grabbing range, summoning a third weapon as she did so.

Sec was on her in a heartbeat, surging forward like a bulldozer. Kyouko managed to bat away the plunger, but was brutally knocked down by the Dalek's armored form. Sec grabbed hold of the redhead's neck, lifting her like a sack of feathers, and slammed her against the wall.

_*Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham!*_

_*Crack!*_

There was a cry of pain as _something_ audibly broke. Sec released Kyouko, allowing the girl to collapse on the floor. She lay there, motionless before shakily rising to her feet, using her spear like a crutch.

She cast a defiant look at the alien.

"That…that all you got?"

Sec's plunger flew forward, covering her face.

"NE-GA-TIVE."

Kyouko flailed as the suction increased, slowly constricting her skull.

"IT IS A PI-TY, I BE-LIEVE WE WO-ULD HA-VE HA-D MU-CH IN COM-MON." Sec seemed to muse, as Kyouko lost consciousness and was slowly strangled to death. "HO-WE-VER, YOU ARE MY E-NE-MY, SO NO-W YOU DIE."

"Wait!"

Sec's eye swung around to look at her. Madoka recoiled slightly at his gaze.

"EX-PLAIN."

"You don't need to kill her, just…let her go, she's beaten already."

"THAT IS UN-AC-CEP-TA-BLE! IF I RE-LEASE HER, SHE WILL ON-LY CAU-SE TROU-BLE. I CAN-NOT AF-FORD TO PUT MY STRA-TE-GEM AT RI-SK."

"That doesn't mean you have to kill her!"

"YES, YES IT DO-ES. WHY SHO-ULD I NOT KILL HER?"

Madoka was about to say, "Because killing is wrong!", but she managed to stop herself. Dalek Sec was an _alien_; it was only natural that he would see things in an alien way. Things that seemed like natural explanations to her would not work on him.

Madoka's mind worked furiously. As much as she wanted Sayaka to be safe, she didn't want people to die over her. Even people like Kyouko.

Weren't they all supposed to be on the same side?

_Think!_

"I AM STILL A-WAIT-ING AN EX-PLA-NA-TION."

"You were wrong, she _is_ useful to you."

Sec's glowing mechanical eye narrowed. "EX-PLAIN."

"Homura told me you needed Sayaka alive, something about Walpurgisnacht." Madoka bit her lip, "I…I don't know why you need her, or what you are planning to have her do but…Sayaka, she's not a very good fighter. You saw that yourself."

"COR-RECT."

"But _she_ is." Madoka pointed at the twitching redhead, "She has more experience in being a Magical Girl…she can train Sayaka into being a better fighter... she can teach her how to survive."

"SA-YA-KA WILL NOT A-GREE WITH THIS."

"Sayaka wants to help people, save them." Madoka recalled her previous conversation with Homura, "She won't like it, but she'll agree, when she understands that she can't save anyone if she dies."

"THE ONE WITH RED HA-IR MAY AT-TEM-PT TO KILL HER."

"Not if you are watching, especially now that she knows how dangerous you are."

"I CO-ULD HA-VE SOME-ONE EL-SE PER-FORM THE TRAIN-ING. THERE ARE ES-TA-BLISH-MENTS FOR THAT."

"But there is no Dojo in the world that will teach her how to be a Magical Girl." Seeing Sec's rebuttal before it happened, she quickly added, "And Homura doesn't seem to be the sort of person who would wish to help her."

Sec stood silent for a moment, before releasing Kyouko, letting her drop to the ground.

"YOU ARE COR-RECT. I WILL BE LEA-VING NOW."

"Wait!"

Sec turned to look at her. The "EX-PLAIN!" went unsaid.

Madoka heaved Sayaka up from the ground, struggling to lift her unconscious friend.

"Can you help me getting her home?"

* * *

><p><em><strong>Time has neither a beginning, nor an end.<strong>_

_**-back on itself. It loops-**_

_**-does. -believe- -order- –follow- –Does- It- -not- -the- -you- -it-**_

_**-happen before you think they do. -simultaneously**_

_**Things may- Or they might happen-**_

_**Events in the future may affect events of the past.**_

* * *

><p>After partially draping the unconscious Sayaka over Sec's arm, they set off for the blunette's place. They stuck to the alleyways, so as to keep themselves out of sight, stopping only once they reached the park. There, Dalek Sec unceremoniously plopped Sayaka into a bench, Madoka hastily sitting her up.<p>

Despite a rather rough journey (Sec didn't seem to grasp the concept of "Gentle"), Sayaka was still dead to the world, only the constant moving of her chest indicated that she was still breathing.

"Shouldn't she have woken up by now?"

"I US-ED A LOW POW-ERED NEU-RAL DIS-RUP-TOR. IT SHO-ULD WE-AR OFF IN FOUR HUN-DRED RE-LS."

"In how long?"

"FI-VE OF YOUR MI-NU-TES."

"Oh."

They stood in silence for a few moments.

"Sec-san… can I ask you something?"

Dalek Sec turned to look at her, boring into her with an unyielding mechanical gaze.

"THAT IS DE-PEN-DENT ON THE QUES-TION." He said.

Madoka pressed her fingertips together. "I want to know… about this _Walpurgisnacht_."

"_WAL-PUR-GIS-NACHT_?"

"Homura told me that you and she were preparing for it, but she refused to tell me what it was…"

"HO-MU-RA A-KE-MI BE-LI-EVES THAT YOU SHOULD DIS-TANCE YOUR-SELF FROM A-NY-THING RE-LA-TED TO _WAL-PUR-GIS-NACHT_. I AM A-MA-ZED THAT SHE MEN-TION-ED IT TO YOU AT ALL." There was a tinny whine of something electronic inside the armor, "HO-WE-VER, I BE-LIEVE YOU ARE EN-TI-TLED TO KNOW. _WAL-PUR-GIS-NACHT_ IS AN EX-TREME-LY PO-WER-FUL WITCH, CA-PA-BLE OF MA-NI-FES-TING WI-THOUT A BAR-RIER."

"Oh." A Witch…well, what _else_ could a Magical girl be preparing for?

"How powerful?"

"IF LEFT UN-CHECK-ED, IT WILL RA-VAGE THE A-RE-A."

Madoka fell into a shocked silence. A witch, capable of wiping her town from the map…

- _I'm not a hero. I stopped being one so long ago I cannot remember what it was like… _–

"But…why does Homura wish to stop it? She doesn't look like the sort of person who would do such a thing…"

"BE-CAUSE THE AR-RI-VAL OF _WAL-PUR-GIS-NACHT_ OFT-EN TRIG-GERS AN IN-CREASE IN THE NUM-BER OF PUE-LLA MA-GI IN THE TAR-GET A-RE-A."

"And she doesn't want anyone to share the fate of being a Magical girl…" It made sense, the appearance of such a monster would have girls making wishes left and right in desperation.

"And you?"

"I HA-VE MY REA-SONS."

Well… that didn't work…

They stood there in awkward silence, trees rustling in the cool night air.

"Aren't you worried? About fighting that thing?"

"DA-LEKS HA-VE NO CON-CEPT OF WOR-RY, TO FILL YO-UR MIND WITH WHAT MIGHT HAP-PEN IS AB-SURD. IN AD-DI-TION, I HA-VE FO-UGHT WO-RSE THI-NGS BE-FORE."

"Really?"

"YES. IT IS HA-RD TO FI-ND A FOE DAUN-TING AF-TER SER-VING IN THE DA-LEK AR-MY FOR TWO HUN-DRED AND FIF-TY THOU-SAND YE-ARS."

Madoka blinked.

_What._

"You're _how_ old?"

"TWO HUN-DRED AND FIF-TY THOU-SAND YE-ARS. WH-AT IS THE SOUR-CE OF YOUR CON-FU-SION? I E-VEN USED YO-UR AR-BI-TRA-RY MEA-SURE-MENT SYS-TEM!"

"No it's just…Isn't that a really long time?"

"YES, IT IS." Sec sounded quite…pleased with himself, for some reason.

"How do you cope with that? Living for such a long time?"

There was a soft electronic noise as the iris of Sec's electronic eye adjusted slightly.

"I DO NOT. I AM A SOL-DIER OF THE DA-LEK AR-MY, A LO-NG LIFE-SPAN IM-PLIES EX-PE-RIENCE AND A-BI-LI-TY TO SUR-VIVE. THERE IS NO-THING TO COPE WITH."

"Oh." Of course, an alien mind would think of living forever in an alien way. Apparently, Daleks thought of age as just a measure of experience.

That meant that what he said earlier was him trying to tell her that she shouldn't worry about _Walpurgisnacht,_ because he had a lot of experience fighting… whatever Daleks were supposed to fight.

Madoka steered her thought process away, before she could begin to wonder just _what_ a flying, alien, man sized tank would have two thousand and fifty years of experience fighting.

"Homura told me that _Puella Magi_ didn't age, and I was worried about Sayaka." She sighed, "I was hoping that you could teach her how to cope with it. Fighting for eternity, I mean." A nervous smile crept into her lips, "But that won't work, right?"

"NE-GA-TIVE."

"I'm just afraid, that one day there'll be no one there for her. That everyone around her would grow old and leave her behind, while she goes on; living in solitude for ages, alone."

"Has that ever happened to you, Sec-san?"

Dalek Sec stared at her. His lack of facial features made whatever was in his mind unfathomable. He said nothing.

Suddenly, his head swiveled towards Sayaka, who had roused herself quite suddenly, gasping for air and looking around at the unfamiliar environment.

As Madoka sat down next to her friend and explained what had happened in her absence, she couldn't help but wonder why Sec hadn't answered her last question.

* * *

><p>The apartment was, as far as the establishment knew, currently abandoned due to safety concerns and waiting for demolition, something which suited Kyouko just fine, thank you. With any luck, the demolition team would be very late, and she'd have plenty of time to find someplace else.<p>

The place wasn't so bad. Plenty of space, and magic could do wonders in making places livable. A little bit of it, and she had water and electricity running without having to pay a yen.

Of course, the pain in her left shoulder and god-knows-how-many broken bones kinda dulled the small comforts.

_Ow! Ow! Ow!_

She kicked the door closed and collapsed in the futon lying in what should have been the living room.

_What the fucking hell was that thing?_

She'd managed to drag herself to her humble abode after that encounter, but only barely. Whatever the hell that was, she was _not_ fucking with it again.

_Ever._

Concentrating on her wounds, she sent silvers of magic into them. The pain diminished, but the bones healed slowly.

Grimacing, she applied more magic. The bones knitted together slightly faster, and she waited until the shoulder was reasonably healed before cutting off the process. Checking her Soul Gem, she found it predictably darkened, and drew off the sludge with a Grief Seed fished out of her pockets.

Now that her shoulder wasn't giving her more immediate trouble, she took stock of her situation.

_Okay, on one hand, I'm still kicking; which is infinitely preferable to the alternative, because I don't have my excuses for Saint Peter ready yet._

_On the other hand, I got myself a broken shoulder…_ She did a quick estimate in her head_. …that's gonna be healed in a _week_ if I push it, and in the meantime I'm going to burn through Grief Seeds like no tomorrow. And that's if Mr. I'm-gonna-kill-you-with-a-fucking-plunger doesn't come back to finish the job. I've also got myself some anime fan with a hero complex that's going to kill me for great justice the minute she gets a chance. And then there's that Puella Magi that Kyubey said he can't remember ever contracting, and if she's smart, she'll be knocking my door down any minute now._

_Not bad at all, eh?_

_And now there's someone in my roo-_

…_Wait._

"Gah!" She transformed in a heartbeat, and summoned a spear in her good hand. The newcomer didn't even flinch, and Kyouko noticed that she had a gun in her hand, which hadn't been there a moment ago.

This wasn't good, for one thing, Kyouko was on the ground, and that gun could fire a lot faster than she could jab a spear. The girl could kill her without even getting a scratch in return.

She aimed the spear someplace else, "Peace?" she hopefully asked.

The other girl raised an eyebrow, before flicking the gun to point at the roof.

Kyouko lowered her spear –but didn't dismiss it- and sat up, wincing as unhealed wounds protested.

Now, she got a good look at the other girl. Long black hair, purple eyes, _Puella Magi_ outfit…

_Oh, this is just _great_._

"Relax, I'm not here to kill you." The other _Puella Magi_ said, in a voice that didn't sound like she would care either way.

"Lucky me." Kyouko grumbled, "So what are you here for, then? We Puella Magi aren't the kind of people who invite each other for tea, eh?"

"I suppose not." The other girl tucked the pistol into a silver shield strapped to her arm, "I'm here to talk about the terms of your stay."

"And by "talk", you mean "do as I say or else". I'm not exactly in a position to argue about anything."

"Ah, yes. Dalek Sec was quite…descriptive in telling me what he did to you." The girl hadn't shifted her tone in the slightest. It was beginning to get slightly disturbing.

"Wait, you know that thing? Big, black pepper pot-shaped shouty robot with a plunger?" Maybe she should have gone to Tokyo; at least the _Puella Magi_ gangs there didn't include murderous alien robots.

…_Nah. I'd probably be a target for everyone in the entire city after the last time. Never saw all those gangs work together like that before._

"He's an ally, and a rather powerful one at that."

"You don't say. What the hell is that thing anyway?"

"He's a Dalek."

"And just what the hell is a "Dalek"? Is it a robot or something?"

The other girl went silent, her face an impassive mask. Kyouko quietly added her to the "People I don't want to fuck with" list. Anyone with that kind of poker face was not a harbinger of good things.

"I have no clue. I should ask him later."

"Yeah, you do that. Now, just what are these "terms" you were talking about?"

"Quite simple terms: you must train Miki Sayaka in being a _Puella Magi_, under the supervision of Dalek Sec. In return, Sec has agreed to refrain from killing you, and you'll also receive some Grief Seeds as payment."

"And if I say no?"

"You'll have twelve hours to leave." She checked a wristwatch, "You have five minutes to decide."

_A little brusque, are we?_

Kyouko thought about it. She'd had better deals than this one; the prospect of training a newbie with an inflated sense of heroism did not look particularly inviting.

On the other hand, the deal also promised Grief Seeds, and in her condition, she wasn't in any position to make a proper counterargument.

Well, she could always leave…

"How many Grief Seeds are talking about here?"

"Four, plus half of whatever Sayaka or Sec can obtain. I'll also give in a bit of information you'll find interesting."

She thought about it some more, and then made her decision.

"I'm in."

The other girl raised an eyebrow. "I was almost certain that you would refuse."

"Can't, every other territory's taken." She allowed herself to lie down, munching a Pocky from an open pack on the floor, "And my old place's gotten short on witches, no matter how many girls I chase off. So I'm in, as much as I hate it."

She left out that she was also a bit short on Grief Seeds. No need to sound _that_ desperate.

"Now about that little bit of info you were saying…"

"_Walpurgisnacht_ is coming. She'll be here in two weeks."

Huh… that certainly caught her attention.

"_Walpurgisnacht_? Queen of all witches that comes every hundred years?"

"Yes."

"Huh…" She took another Pocky out of the pack. "I'll have to think about that one."

"Do so. Sec will be meeting you tomorrow, at the music store." She turned to leave. "Please be punctual."

"You know, I never did get your name."

"Akemi Homura. And I already know yours, by the way."

And with that, she left, shutting the door behind her with a soft *click*.

_Definitely not a people person. Heck, even the other Puella Magi I've known aren't like that. This Dalek Sec isn't hanging around her for her personality, that's for sure._

_Now, how the hell am I supposed to get out of this mess?_

"_Kyouko, would you mind if I asked you a few questions?"_

"Gah!"

Kyubey had seemingly materialized out of thin air and was sitting on the windowsill, red eyes looking at her intensely.

_Oh, for crying out loud! _

"Can't it wait? I mean, no offense, but I just got myself handed an offer I couldn't refuse, and it kinda fucked over my mood for talking with people."

"_I apologize, but I must insist."_ Kyubey's tail twitched, _"It is rather important."_

Kyouko muttered a few choice words. The day just kept getting better and better…

"Okay, shoot."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Kings, Emperors, Presidents, Lords and Overlords.<strong>_

_**Gods, beings that could destroy one universe after another…**_

_**They all obey Time.**_

_**To be beyond Time is to be of the Void, where nothing may exist, where infinite power is sucked dry.**_

* * *

><p>"FA-SCI-NA-TING."<p>

Sec reviewed the scans from the souls taken from the Grief Seeds, as well as measurements of Grief Seeds themselves.

The readings form the Grief Seeds were nearly identical, clearly due to mass production. The material was a mystery, but it seemed to be a processing unit, as well as some form of data storage. There were gaps in the information, places in the data that simply didn't make sense.

For example, how could witches create their barriers? There had to be some mechanism for the generation of a bubble universe, yet Sec could find any indication of one.

As for the Soul Gems, the superficial scan of Homura's own had concluded that the gem was a storage crystal, and not much else. Clearly the more complex mechanisms were held in the surrounding structure, which the Incubator recycled into the next Soul Gem.

Following that theory, it meant that every Soul Gem had once been a Grief seed, just like every Grief Seed was once a Soul Gem.

Here the theory moved into shaky ground. Familiars, born from witches, could separate themselves from them and become witches themselves, who also gave Grief Seeds on death…

But of course! That was how the Incubator produced new Soul Gems to add to the system: rather than produce new frameworks to replace lost units or fit an expanding population, the witches themselves would produce new frameworks, using devoured humans as raw materials (Just what those raw materials were stumped Sec. He didn't like being stumped.). The five people a familiar kills to become a witch must provide it with the energy needed to jump start the device, bringing forth a new witch, almost identical to the old one.

The Incubators, or their masters in this "Coalition", couldn't have made more than a few frameworks themselves, after that, the system would supply itself. There must have been two of them per region: one to give to a girl doomed to become the first witch, and a second, given after the original witch had produced enough familiars, to hunt those witches, and give the Incubators the materials needed to expand.

He inspected the sphere of an empty Grief Seed through the disembodied vision of a jury-rigged electron microscope. His casing's systems monitored the security feeds from the outside and the satellite imagery of Sayaka Miki's household, as well as the current location of Kyouko Sakura, where Homura Akemi was currently located. A small program monitored the incoming internet connection, searching for anything related to Puella Magi.

He wondered if the visual appearance of Soul Gems and Grief Seeds varied from region to region. Were they different in other parts of the world? How did the Incubators fit into the mythos of each area? Were the witches different?

This was his element. He may be the last Dalek, alone, shot by his own people and dropped into an alien universe, but as long as he had his laboratory, his research and his science, he didn't care.

He was about to order Jast to obtain a quantum circuit interface, when he remembered that Jast wasn't by his side, watching closely. Jast wasn't even in the same universe, and was most likely dead.

In fact, there wasn't anyone in the warehouse. Only him, and a mish-mash of electronics and computers to keep him company.

He was alone.

_-Has that ever happened to you, Sec-san?-_

Yes. It has.

He quickly banished that line of thought, shifting his focus into crafting as adequate a quantum circuit interface with what he had, what he could buy, and what he could fabricate.

He checked the surveillance feed, Homura would arrive in a matter of minutes. He readied the equipment necessary for making a quantum circuit interface, putting an online order for the missing material, sending an outraged letter to the companies that had failed to deliver, and settled down to wait.

He idly hovered towards the one computer which hadn't been cannibalized. He had done research into human media, most of which he didn't find interesting. There seemed to be a large amount of electronic games, with an emphasis on storytelling and graphics, none of which he could be bother with.

One, however, had caught his attention. It had none of the intricate graphics of the others, but was supposedly ludicrously complex, generating an entire world at random, populating it with unique inhabitants and keeping track of their health down to individual body parts, relationships, and history through long periods. Sec was actually intrigued by those claims, so he acquired it from the developer's website and installed it on the computer.

Having nothing better to do, he decided to try it out.

* * *

><p><em>Opening research file: An investigation on human interactive media.<em>

_Loading entries 1-6 out of 69…_

Attempt #1

_I have successfully integrated the human computer's external interface to my systems and have and reviewed the games instructions.__  
><em>_  
>I have selected an area with a difficulty worthy of a Dalek Supreme, chosen my supplies and am now in the process of-WHERE DID THAT LAVA COME FROM?<em>

Attempt #2

_This Fortress has been relocated into a colder climate. I am now in the process of digging a-SWIM YOU PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR AN INTELLIGENT BEING! SWIM!_

Attempt #3

_WHERE DID THREE MILLION CATS COME FROM? HOW CAN THEY FIT INTO A CAGE! AND WHY DO THE HAVE THE SAME EFFECT AS A THERMOBARIC BOMB! EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN! EXPLAAAIIIINNNN!_

Attempt #4

_[UNINTELLIGIBLE SOUNDS OF INTENSE RAGE.]_

Attempt #5

_HOW CAN A CREATURE LIKE THAT EVEN EXIST, LET ALONE SLAUGHTER THESE INCOMPETENTS? WHY IS THERE NO FUNCTION TO EXECUTE MY MILITARY COMMANDERS? AND HOW CAN SOMEONE INGEST FOOD WHILE A MONSTER MADE OF FLAMING VOMIT IS TEARING THEM TO SHREDS! EXPLAAAAAAIIIIIIINN!_

Attempt #6

_Fortress has been __successful__, although the __denizen's__ ability to ignore fire is disturbing. This is likely some sort of programing erro- NO! YOU ARE NOT THIRSTY! YOU DO NOT REQUIRE ALCOHOL! OBEY! OBEEEYYY!_

* * *

><p>Homura heard Dalek Sec long before she reached the warehouse; it was a sound of unending frustration and anger, long ago rendered incoherent and void of meaning.<p>

She continued on her way, reaching the warehouse and giving a polite knock on the steel roll-up door. There was silence on the other end, before the curtain was rolled upwards by electric motors, revealing Dalek Sec, who was in the process of furiously shaking an old monitor.

Homura twitched an eyebrow at this odd display.

"What are you doing?"

Sec made a noise that spoke of unspeakable, horrific and strangely specific violence, before seemingly collecting itself and not-too-gently setting the monitor back on a table.

"I WAS DO-ING NO-THING. THIS DID NOT HAP-PEN."

An eyebrow was raised a millimeter; Homura wondered what this particular outburst had been about. Earlier in the day, she had walked in on Sec having a shouting match with someone on the phone over supposedly defective merchandise.

"…Kyouko has agreed to our terms, she'll be waiting at the park tomorrow." She entered the warehouse, careful not to step on any of the wiring strewn on the floor.

"I'm still surprised Madoka could convince you to keep her alive."

"SHE HAD A CON-VIN-CING AR-GU-MENT."

"I'm still not entirely certain this is a good idea… no matter, what have you discovered so far?"

"FA-SCI-NA-TING THI-NGS; FOR IN-STANCE, WERE YOU A-WARE THAT THE ME-TAL FRA-ME-WORK FOR A SO-UL GEM IS WHAT TRANS-FORMS INTO A GRIEF SE-ED?"

"Yes, but I do not see how this is relevant."

"IT ME-ANS THAT THE E-NE-MY IS RE-PURPOSING GRI-EF SE-EDS GI-VEN TO IT BY _PUE-LLA MA-GI_ AS THE BA-SIS FOR MO-RE PUE-LLA MA-GI." Sec sounded oddly… excited as it said this. The alien made adjustments to some of the machinery surrounding it, "THIS IM-PLIES THAT A GRI-EF SE-ED CAN BE TRANS-FORMED IN-TO A SO-UL GEM, AND A WI-TCH CAN BE-COME A _PUE-LLA MA-GI_; WH-ICH IS EX-CE-LENT FOR MY PLAN."

Homura opened her mouth to protest, Kyubey had told her that turning a Witch back into a _Puella Magi_ was impossible.

No, that wasn't what had happened. She had asked Kyubey if turning a Witch _back into_ a _Puella Magi_ could be done, not if a Witch could be turned into a _different_ _Puella Magi_.

Homura had long ago learned to focus on the exact meaning of what Kyubey said, but she hadn't ever thought the Incubator would be doing the exact same thing.

"So, in theory, what you intend to do just went from "Impossible" to "extremely unlikely"."

"YES. THE-RE ARE STILL GA-PS IN THE IN-FOR-MA-TION… FOR EX-AM-PLE, WH-AT IS THIS MA-TE-RIAL MA-DE OF? IT KE-EPS CON-FU-SING MY REA-DINGS… THERE IS AL-SO NO IN-DI-CA-TION OF HOW A WITCH CAN PRO-DUCE A BU-BBLE U-NI-VERSE OR HOW E-MO-TION-AL E-NER-GY CAN BE CON-VER-TED INTO AN-TI-EN-TRO-PIC E-NER-GY…" Dalek Sec jammed his plunger into a makeshift interface, making a cable spark. "THIS EN-TI-TY YOU CALL A "SOUL"… I SHALL RE-QUIRE MORE DE-TAILED REA-DINGS TO E-VEN _BE-GIN_ TO MAKE SEN-SE OF IT."

Homura shrugged. "I suppose magic wouldn't make much sense."

"I RE-FUSE TO GI-VE UP AND RE-DUCE MY-SELF TO U-SING "MA-GIC" AS AN EX-PLA-NA-TION FOR E-VERY-THING." Sec spat out. "THIS IS _SCI-ENCE_, WHERE A IS E-QUAL TO A, CA-USE HAS EF-FECT AND THI-NGS DO NOT HAP-PEN "BE-CAUSE SO". ONCE I HAVE DE-DU-CED THE FUN-CTIO-NING OF THIS TECH-NO-LO-GY…" Sec made a… disturbing sound, full of static and with a wavering pitch. "I HA-VE _IN-TE-RES-TING_ AP-PLI-CA-TIONS IN MI-ND."

"…I see." Not for the last time, Homura wondered just what she had gotten herself into. "And did you find anything else remotely relevant to what you are planning to do?"

"I HAVE FO-UND A WAY TO CO-PY THE CON-TENTS OF THE CRYS-TAL IN SA-YA-KA MI-KI'S SOUL GEM. IT IS A SIM-PLE QUAN-TUM RE-PLI-CA-TION SCAN; IT AL-LOWS ME TO MAN-TAIN AN EX-ACT VIR-TUAL CO-PY OF AN OB-JECT, PL-US A-NY DA-TA IT MI-GHT CON-TAIN. I STI-LL RE-QUI-RE AN EX-CUSE TO PER-FORM THE SCAN-NING."

Homura nodded, this was good. "I think I can help you with that; Sayaka is not very powerful, she had very little potential at the time of her contract and her burnout rate is very fast. You could say that you wish to help her in that area and she'll happily agree with whatever you intend to do."

"CER-TAIN-LY."

Sec brought up a screen full of extremely intricate nonsense. "I MU-ST AD-MIT THAT THE LIFE-FORM THAT DE-SIGNED THIS SYS-TEM KNEW WHAT IT WAS DO-ING."

Homura unconsciously reached for a gun that wasn't there. Yet at least. "What, exactly, do you mean by that?"

"IT IS IN-CRE-DI-BLY STA-BLE, AND E-NER-GY IS GAIN-ED FROM DES-PAIR GE-NE-RA-TED IN MUL-TI-PLE STA-GES. IT IS AL-SO SELF-RE-GU-LA-TING: A-NY _PUEL__-__LA MA__-__GI_ WHO DIS-CO-VERS HOW WIT-CHES ARE CRE-A-TED WILL EI-THER FALL INTO DES-PAIR, OR BE MA-NI-PU-LA-TED IN-TO SER-VING AS EN-FOR-CERS." Sec explained. "A-NY O-THER ME-THOD WO-ULD NOT HAVE BE-EN NEAR-LY AS STA-BLE."

"I see…" Homura brought her arm to her side, where her itchy trigger finger would cause fewer misunderstandings. "The revelation that _Puella Magi_ are but monsters in training would be enough to drive the hope from anyone."

"PER-SO-NAL EX-PER-IENCE?"

"Yes, I've seen it myself. Despair is a death sentence to us."

"YET YOU ARE STI-LL HE-RE, EVEN THO-UGH YOU KNO-W WHAT YOU TRU-LY ARE."

Homura nodded, "Yes."

"THE-N WHY DO YOU CON-TI-NUE?"

"Because I refuse to fall into despair. I refuse to give up and let fate take its course. I have no idea wherever or not this may end this time, or in some distant future, but I'll follow it until the end, even if it takes me a million lifetimes to do so, even if I turn to dust at the end of the road. I promised myself I would protect Madoka from this fate, and until there is no doubt in the world that the Incubator can't touch her, that she'll live the life that has been denied to me, I'll uphold that promise." Homura breathed once, to squash her rising feelings underfoot, "Madoka saved me…and one day, I'll return the favor."

"YOU KE-EP YOUR-SELF GO-ING ON DE-TER-MI-NA-TION A-LONE?"

Homura nodded. There was silence from the dalek for a minute, before it spoke.

"HOW VE-RY… _DA-LEK._"

Homura pondered those words. Was that a compliment?

She internally shrugged, not truly caring.

There wasn't much to discuss afterwards, Sec had found an appropriate training ground –a bit of deserted space in the industrial sector that hadn't been repurposed as housing yet- and had forged a debit card he could use to withdraw money from a bank, to further bribe Kyouko into service. Homura had left him to his "research" and headed back home, but not before sweeping the area around Madoka's house free of Incubator bodies.

She arrived at her large apartment, and entered her bedroom to prepare some more explosives. There was a time where she would be sweating bullets at the mere thought of the activity, but by now she had become knowledgeable enough in this to afford to let her mind wonder.

Dalek Sec was progressing in his plans as scheduled, and she had already raided the JSDF for the necessary equipment. Mortars, rocket launchers, that decommissioned American warship, mines, claymores, C4…

It was a good thing that her shield allowed her to carry all that stuff undetected; otherwise several hundred court orders would be knocking her door down. She still remembered that one time a police officer had caught her in the act of killing one of the Incubator's bodies. Not particularly pleasant, that.

She poured the mixture into pipes she had made ready earlier, and screwed them shut. It would harden overnight, and be ready to use in the morning.

She stored the pipes in the cupboard (the cookies there having long ago disappeared), and headed over to her computer, firing up her usual information sources. She checked the time, and saw that it was quite late.

She let herself feel the state of her body, and frowned. It seemed to be exhausted.

Sighing, she shut down her computer and headed off to bed, clothes and all. She could straighten the wrinkles with a minimum amount of magic in the morning.

Disconnecting herself from her sleeping body, she kept on thinking, pouring over what she had learned of _Walpurgisnacht_ so far. It wasn't much, so she quickly steered her mind elsewhere.

Kyouko's earlier question came back, unbidden. Just what _was_ Dalek Sec anyways? The metallic appearance pointed towards him being something mechanical in nature, but Homura had doubts that a machine could be as… emotionally unstable as Sec.

Perhaps it was a suit? And if so, a suit for what exactly? Sec wasn't much taller than her, so whatever inhabited that shell couldn't be very large…

She had to ask Sec later, most likely tomorrow. Her body was consuming resources slightly faster than usual, must likely due to her still-healing injuries.

She _really_ had to see Sayaka about those burns.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Time can be manipulated.<strong>_

_**It can be tweaked, It can be pushed and prodded.**_

_**But to truly control Time.**_

_**You must understand Time.**_

* * *

><p><em>*Vworp!*<em>

_*Vworp!*_

_*Vworp!*_

_*Thunk!*_

_*Creeeaaak…*_

"Aha! Now we're getting closer! Vladivostok, February 2, 2011, just a few more tries, and I'll get us smack on!"

Neither Amy nor Rory looked particularly comforted. They stayed just inside the TARDIS, where it wasn't freezing.

"Doctor, that's what you said _last time_. And _last time_ we ended up in England before _people_ got there!"

"Hey! It's not my fault the Time Vortex isn't being very cooperative!"

The Time Lord strode forwards, thinking, "It's almost as if there was a temporal flux zone stretching out across the universe, stiffening the time stream and making time travel almost impossible," he raised a finger, "And there are also these weird spatial distortions dotted about. In fact…" he whipped out his sonic screwdriver, scanning the general area, "There's one around here!" He hurried off, barely pausing to call out to them, "Have a look around and if either of you bump into spatial anomalies, call me!"

With that, the eccentric Lord of Time rounded the corner, before doubling back and re-entering the TARDIS, in search of warmer clothes.

Unbeknown to them, a little girl no more than fourteen years old watched them from the roof of a blocky apartment complex. Her name was Zoya, and she was clad in clothes too large for her size, an old jacket and patched knee-length skirt over mismatched tights and blouses stacked one on top of the other. She wore a silver ring with an incrusted orange gem on her ungloved hand. Dirty orange hair fell to her shoulders, and a wool cap sat on her head.

She had seen the blue box appear out of thin air with an eerie noise, and the three strangers it contained. Should she tell the Giver about them?

Maybe, but instead of seeking out the white furry creature, she decided to investigate on her own. As _Puella Magi_ of this tiny patch of land in the city, she felt compelled to do so.

And as the child she was, she was curious about these strangers.

She raced down the steps of the apartment complex, and plodded behind the couple –the tall crazy man had long disappeared- keeping a respectable distance.

_Who were they?_ She wondered.

* * *

><p>"You don't have to follow me everywhere!"<p>

"YES, I DO."

"Seriously, I can take care of myself!"

"YOU ARE NOT CON-VIN-CING ME."

Sayaka growled, trying and failing to ignore the self-proclaimed "Imperialistic Space Nazi" standing mere inches behind her as she tried picking out a disk to give to Kyousuke. She silently cursed Madoka for talking her into this, and nearly cursed Dalek Sec out loud for not having any concept of subtlety.

She felt a presence just over her shoulder.

"Can't I get a little privacy!" she hissed.

"DA-LEKS HA-VE NO CON-CEPT OF PRI-VA-CY." It screeched.

She delivered a sharp kick to the alien's armor behind her. "What about personal space?"

"DA-LEKS HA-VE NO CON-CEPT OF PER-SO-NAL SPACE."

"Or how about decency? You can't just walk…float…trundle into the girl's bathroom! That's just perverted!" she hissed, recalling an incident earlier in the day.

"YES I CAN. DA-LEKS HAVE NO GEN-DER, THERE-FORE, I VIOLATED NO-NE OF YOUR AR-BI-TRA-RY RU-LES." Sayaka plugged her ears with her fingers, which did absolutely nothing to dampen the ridiculously loud voice behind her, "AND I FI-ND THE CON-CEPT OF HU-MANS BE-ING AT-TRAC-TIVE TO ME AS A-LI-EN AS THIS THI-NG CAL-LED KA-RE-O-KE. I HA-VE RE-SEAR-CHED A-ROUN-D FIF-TY THOU-SAND KI-LO-RELS WO-RTH OF MA-TE-RIAL, AND IT STI-LL MA-KES NO SE-NSE…"

Sayaka, through a monstrous effort of will, ignored the alien behind her. Privately, she was stumped at how bizarre a turn her life had taken. First, it turned out that Magical Girls existed; that they fought freaky abominations called Witches and that one of her classmates was one. Then the mysterious exchange student turned out to also be a magical girl. Then an alien shows up and, surprise! The magical girl exchange student knows… it.

And yesterday, Madoka had told her that she was worried about her safety (-_I'm a Magical Girl! I think I can handle myself!_-) so she and Sec had arranged for someone to teach her the ropes.

And then her friend told her _who_ would be her teacher…

In the end, Madoka had convinced her that she needed lessons from the redhead –Kyouko-, if only so that she could learn her ill-gotten skills and use them for good for a change. At first she had demanded some other teacher, but had quickly shut up when she realized the only other _Puella Magi_ around was Homura Akemi.

So now here she was, a Magical Girl straight out of a _Manga_, with a space alien escorting her as if she were a two-year-old, and off to be taking lessons from a lazy, selfish, two-bit prick of a Magical Girl.

"…AND TH-AT IS NO-THING COM-PARE-D TO O-THER ME-DI-A ON YO-UR IN-TER-NET, WHI-CH MA-KES BLO-CK TRANS-FER E-QUA-TIONS LO-OK PER-FECT-LY RA-TIO-NAL BY COM-PA-RI-SON…"

"Could you just shut up? Or at least speak softly?"

"I _AM_ SPEAK-ING SOFT-LY."

Sayaka resisted the urge to forcibly join her forehead with the rack in front of her.

"Do you have _anything_ else to be doing besides standing three inches behind me?"

"AF-FIR-MA-TIVE." she heard the whine of Sec's head turning to look somewhere else. "I SHAL GO GA-THER RE-SEARCH MA-TE-RIAL. WAIT HE-RE." A few moments later she heard it hover away, to look at the movie section of the store.

She sighed in relief. Seriously, why did the alien have to be so insistent on keeping close to her? It wasn't as if she would drop dead the moment it looked away.

She flipped through the music disks, wondering what she should bring for Kyousuke; perhaps something with more violins in it, to celebrate that he could play like that again?

Decisions, decisions…

Something caught her eye, a reflexion on one of the disks. Something red…

"Hello Kyouko."

"…Dammit, how did you know I was there?"

Sayaka allowed herself a smirk as she turned around to face the redhead, who munched on a Pocky. For a moment, they stood there, trying not to glare at each other. It was Kyouko who broke the silence.

"So… music, eh? Didn't think you were the musical type."

More awkward silence followed that statement. Kyouko sighed.

"Look, I'm gonna be honest: I don't want to do this, I don't particularly like you and I'm pretty sure you don't like me either. The only reason I'm doing this is because I'm getting something out of it, so don't be thinking anything else."

Sayaka scoffed. "_Let me guess, Grief Seeds_." She spat telepathically.

"_Yup. That, the territory and a guarantee from that alien robot of yours that he won't kill me as long as I train you._" Kyouko shrugged. "_I've walked into worse deals._"

Sayaka crossed her arms, "_So what, you're going to teach me how to let people die horribly so I can farm familiars?_"

"_Hey! Say what you li__ke, but it works!_"

"_At the cost of what, five, ten people?_"

"_Have you _seen_ the sort of people who usually fall into a familiar's barrier? They're all terminally depressed__ fuckers!_" Kyouko rolled her eyes. "_N__ot to sound like an asshole, but people who get killed by familiars were about three seconds away from doing the honours._"

Sayaka was having a very hard time pretending to be looking one of the disks over. "_Why am I having trouble believing you?_"

"_Listen, one of these days, I'm gonna show you. It goes like this: Normal Mc Normal-san goes into barrier, shrugs it off, and gets some coffee. Tickle-me-Emo enters into barrier, goes "Waaah!", beats himself half to death and gets 'nommed by Familiar. _"

"_That doesn't mean you have to sit there while they all die!_"

"_Then what am I supposed to do? Give them popcorn?_"

"_You could save them, for example!_"

"_Did you not hear a word I said? The people who get killed by familiars were the sort of people who were five fucking seconds away from doing it themselves! _"

"_That doesn't mean they can't be saved!_"

"_Yes! It does!_"

They would have continued their silent argument, if they hadn't been rudely interrupted by the sound of the shopkeeper having an argument with Dalek Sec.

Although to call it an argument would fail to do it any justice. "Verbal mugging" came closer.

"THE WEB-SITE IN-FORM-ED ME THAT THE-RE WAS A DISCOUNT ON THE DA-YS DE-SIG-NA-TED AS SA-TUR-DAYS! HOW CAN IT BE VO-ID, IF IT IS A SA-TUR-DAY! EX-PLAIN!"

"Uh…sir, that offer ended three days ago-"

"THAT IS NO EX-CUSE! I SAW NO MEN-TION OF SUCH A THING ANY-WHERE!"

"It was on the window-"

"THAT IS HARD-LY AN EF-FI-CIENT MEANS OF CO-MU-NI-CA-TION! WHY HAVE YOU NOT BEEN EX-E-CU-TED FOR IN-COM-PE-TENCE YET!"

"…Manager? Could you come here for a moment?"

Kyouko and Sayaka watched in mild bemusement as the manager, a rather fiery-looking woman with purple hair came into the scene to have a shouting match with the Dalek.

"_Serously, what the hell is that thing?_"

Sayaka shrugged. "_I have no idea._"

"_I'm starting to think it's a robot._"

"_I don't think robots are supposed to be that emotional._"

Kyouko shrugged. "_Maybe its brain got stuck on "Always Angry, All the Time"?_"

Sayaka suppressed a snicker. "_Or maybe it's "Always Shouting, All the time"?_"

The redhead gave a smirk at that.

Eventually, something resembling a deal was made between Sec and the irate woman, and the Dalek trundled over to where they were.

"I SHALL DI-RECT YOU TO-WARDS THE TRAIN-ING GRO-UNDS. FOL-LOW ME."

They left the store, following the shiny black metal alien through the streets, towards the industrial sector.

"_Let's just get this over with._"

Sayaka pressed her lips into a thin line.

"_Let's._"

* * *

><p><em><strong>And to truly understand Time.<strong>_

_**You must BECOME Time.**_

* * *

><p>{The 108841681st meeting of the Coalition will come to order, all present and accounted for.}<p>

/First item on agenda is current progress on Entropic Delay Project. Data confirms that all Emotion Inductor Units have performed according to calculations. We predict that we will have reached our target 7.487958 time units ahead of schedule/

Conditions met. Production is Doubleplusgood. MinEng reports Doubleplusgood params. EstTim to completion is Doubleplusunlate.

{Pur own units are performing according to the General Schedule. We estimate that four planets will complete their quota before the next meeting. The first item has been discussed; the second is current expansion projects. The People will now speak.}

MinEng plans Liberation of 47 NewSpeci. 5LiberSpeci await VolunProg initiation.

/Fleets have completed conversion of 48 planets, and EIU construction has been completed on 38. Current expansion projects are analysing 45 other planets for viability./

{We have located 50 worlds of optimal development stage, Incubation sub processes have commenced cultural steering on 40, and the 10 planets have commenced energy production. We are also evaluating a new energy source, but our research has been inconclusive.}

/So has our own. Data transmission has arrived: current energy quota is ready to be transmitted to the Entropic Delay Propagator./

EngTrans stats ready.

{Transmitor Sub process reports ready. Begin sequence on mark.}

{Mark.}

/Excellent. Meeting concluded, we are severing Data Stream./

CommArr unactivating.

{Logging meeting, confirming communications severance... Confirmed.}

{All is progressing according to the General Schedule. Preparing for next meeting...}

* * *

><p>"Cyber-Ambassador 2658 reporting, meeting concluded with Coalition allies."<p>

"Optimal. Has there been data from World 20054879612483?"

"Yes, anomalous readings have been detected, as per the Stratagem written by the Cyber-Planner."

The CyberController flexed its hand, the armoured limb clenching into a fist. Within this room in the Cyber-World, no two members of the Cyber-Race were from the same species, yet their appearance was nearly identical.

A cold light shone from its eyes as it spoke, voice booming with electronic authority.

"Excellent. Advance Cyber-Fleets 45 through 98758 to their designated positions. Proceed as planned, and ready the next Coalition report within 21510 time units."

"Cyber-Ambassador 2254, contact Species 4454. Give them data packet 4474."

"By your Command."

* * *

><p>The ship hung in space, the globe of a dead planet looming before it. Not that its occupants would notice, their own concept of beauty and elegance quite different from that of others.<p>

Besides, Dalek Killcruisers had no windows. They were considered a waste of space better used to accommodate weaponry or armor.

A distress signal had come from the planet, from one of their own, it seemed. The Strategist castes had no record of any of their ships being sent here, so the presence of the signal had been treated with extreme caution. An entire section of Drones had been sent to the planet, just in case.

The army was more than a match for any ambush. This was why the section leader was confused when their signals inexplicably went dead. A few scouts were sent to figure out to investigate, only for them to vanish as well.

Orbital bombardment was about to commence when the ship's transmat activated. The Killcruiser captain ordered a task force of Drones to the room, the ID verification notwithstanding.

The Transmat pad crackled, a silhouette forming into the familiar shape of a Dalek. As details emerged, the drones present began to see differences. For starters, the casing was much shorter than themselves, and the individual body parts, while recognizable, were either the wrong shape or the wrong size. The casing's color, a gunmetal grey with gold details, was not correspondent with that of any caste.

If anything, it resembled the inferior models that had been destroyed in the resurrection of their race.

Knowing their job, the drones prepared to fire. They never got the chance.

In an instant, the inferior Dalek propelled itself forwards, gunstick spitting fire. It struck two drones, and the cutting beam of an assault claw, pilfered from its own dead troops, cut through the casing of a third. Grasping the dead Drone with its claw, the inferior model swung it around, using it to shield itself from the remaining Drones as multimodal death rays exchanged fire.

Releasing its impromptu shield, the inferior Dalek burst from behind it, dodging fire as it killed another three drones and bisected two others.

Soon the Transmat room was filled with the wreckage of the red Drones. The not-so-inferior Dalek exited, and proceeded to kill the remaining crewmembers. It was all over in a matter of minutes.

Its job done, the Dalek entered the bridge. These so-called Daleks were a disgrace; their supposedly superior technology could not have hoped to match the might of a true Dalek.

It reviewed its current state. Its current assets consisted of a single Killcruiser full of wreckage, an assault claw, and itself. If the data it was reviewing was correct, then the enemy was composed of ninety six fleets of around forty Killcruisers each, and close to four hundred million troops.

The Dalek Inquisitor General was pleased. It liked those odds.

The ship disappeared into the Time Corridor, off to carry the Devil made Dalek to where it wished to cause terror next.

* * *

><p><em><strong>TEEHEEHEEHYAHAHAHHAHA!<strong>_


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